Will someone tell Santorum that this election cycle has nothing to do with birth control? Santorum is quickly coming to a point in which he is seen as driving a social values campaign rather than a failed Obama presidency. While social values are important, they are the last thing on the minds of the electorate.
In an interview, tonight on Hannity, Sarah Palin urged the candidates to start talking about energy issues, foreign policy matters, contrasting conservative ideas with Obama's failed policies. As to the debate, tomorrow night, while acknowleging the import of holding firm to a values agenda, Palin had this advice for the GOP candidates, "Please start with energy" as you expand on the issues at hand. I could not agree more.
It is the commonly held belief that American Business has – at least - reached pre-crisis levels. But that information is not as encouraging as it may sound. Actually, the growth rate of the recovery appears to be at a near static rate. We are not losing ground, but we have a ways to go before we can say that we are removed from the dangers of a continuing recessionary period. Three fourths of accounting firms, for example, see just 16% of business entities adding employees in significant numbers. Some might point to the fact that privately held firms saw their net profit margins rise to a ten-year high, but most of this increase is due to better managed inventories, an increase in production per employee. The CBO projects unemployment at 8% or higher well into 2013. While profits are on the rise, unemployment is not in recovery, and that is the critical issue in this election year. We need to be talking about everything related to jobs, how the larger issue effects our lives in the immediate future and why Obama has failed to make provisions for a substantive jobs recovery and what we might expect from a GOP Administration.
While the economy remains the most important issue for 2012, to date, Republicans have decided to step into the trap set by the Democrats and debate social issues. Hopefully, we (the GOP and its conservative majority) will come to its senses in time to start campaigning on winning issues, issue that drive the economy, issues that are of great importance, issues that are actually on the minds of the larger population. In a recent poll coming from Fox News, we learn that 75% of the general public believes the Republican Party is spending entirely too much time talking about birth control.
Financial review included a preview of materials in The Economist and Sageworks