That sense of frustration among voters has developed despite what White House officials see as a series of successes in the last year and a half: health care reform, Wall Street reform (perhaps to be passed Thursday), and an economic turnaround that has turned staggering monthly job losses into modest monthly job gains.
Republicans, who are hoping to seize control of Congress, point to unemployment numbers that remain near 10 percent, not the 8 percent that White House officials predicted. And they say the public is fed up with the nation’s soaring debt, which the GOP blames on Obama and the Democrats in Congress.
Either way, West Wing officials like Gibbs are trapped now. The more they talk about their economic and legislative successes, the more danger there is that they seem out of touch with the public’s sense of frustration.
And yet, without touting the president’s victories, they leave their allies in Congress at the mercy of an increasingly sour public mood.
