Charlie Cook: Democrats Won’t Be Able to Blame Economy on Bush

I often laugh when I see some liberal blogger (Okay, it's just Chris Leibenthal) who goes on and on about how people are going to remember come November 2010 this economy as "The Bush-Cheney Recession."

Well, he's half-right according to political predictor Charlie Cook.  People do know the recession started in the Bush-Cheney years, however for Democrats, many people also know it was the Obama-Biden Administration and the Democratic Congress which passed the stimulus package, and (via The American Spectator) unless hiring picks up, they will eventually not just own the economy, but be blamed for it.

Obviously, there are many variables that can drive a political party's fortune in next November's elections, but the economy and jobs dwarf all others. Polls may show a majority of Americans understand that this recession started under President George W. Bush, but every day, President Obama, and inferentially his party, take on a bit more ownership. By the 2010 midterm elections, the economy will completely belong to Obama and Democrats.

What should concern Democrats is that while there is a diversity of views about just how much the economy will grow next year, the views of both optimists and pessimists converge on the politically important question of unemployment: The consensus is there will be very, very little job growth next year.

If I were running any of the three targeted seat the NRCC is looking at Wisconsin, I'd start by carving up ads which use the press releases of the any of their opponents where they taut the jobs the bills they are passing were supposed to be produced by now.  Use their own words -- or the words of their press secretaries to be more precise -- against them.

It wouldn't be negative advertising.  It'd be a statement of broken promises and misplaced ideology.