Dan Balz in today's Washington Post:
One of the persistent mysteries about the president is why someone who began his adult life as a community organizer, working with economically displaced workers in Chicago, has had so much difficulty making a connection with voters on economic issues. That was a problem during his presidential campaign. From the questions on Monday, it remains a problem today.
Is this really a persistent mystery, or is it something some political journalists are aggressively trying not to understand? I think it's the latter, since there's actually a really straightforward explanation for why President Obama can't seem to connect with voters on economic issues:
If unemployment weren't at nearly 10 percent and if the unemployed had a fighting chance at finding new jobs, then Obama wouldn't have a problem connecting with voters. It's really that simple.
-- Jamelle Bouie
