Philip Rucker’s article GOP presidential candidates listen more to employers than employees in today’s Washington Post is a prime example of why newspapers are a dying breed; whether Rucker intended the article to be disparaging towards GOP presidential hopefuls or not, the tone could not be misunderstood. Rucker attempted to make a case that the current GOP field was insensitive to the difficulties faced by the unemployed, underemployed or hourly workers; that view is impressively narrow sighted.
Mr. Rucker’s story centered on Mitt Romney’s business round table meetings but his apparent failure to hold conversations with the little guy; fair enough observation, however the undertone of his piece would lead one to believe the Romney and other GOP’ers hoping to unseat Mr. Obama were somehow deaf to the needs of the average Joe. Rucker went as far as to state that “contenders in the GOP field appear to be spending most of their time with those they think could be the solution to the country’s economic hardship (business owners) rather than those who are most directly experiencing the hardship (people out of work).” Clearly Mr. Rucker brought a healthy dose of personal politics into this story; not something we should be surprised to see from a Washington Post writer.
Not to sound too Republican, but the GOP hopefuls should be concentrating on those people most likely to help resolve the hardships being felt by the public and that’s business owners. While hearing the thoughts of the general public is important to anyone considering a run for public office, let alone the presidency of the United States, feeling their pain is a lot less important than remedying it.
Rucker went on to quote a Republican strategist, Ron Bonjean, supposedly not supporting anyone currently in the field, that none of the candidates is “truly” identifying with the fears and suffering of the electorate. Bonjean is a well respected strategist, however how can he or anyone else measure a candidates thoughts? Perhaps Bonjean was commenting about how those in the field have failed to express that concern; yet Rucker was using Bonjean to sell his point that the GOP hopefuls just don’t care about the little guy.
Certainly Rucker had a very specific picture he intended to paint and it was from a distinctly liberal point-of-view. The same shortsightedness exhibited by liberals in Congress is once again being extolled by the left-wing media. Surely Mr. Rucker and others supporting Mr. Obama realize if you don’t focus on the needs of the employers there will be far fewer employees? Perhaps not.
While Rucker may believe business owners are evil profit-motivated creatures from Hades, certainly he’s bright enough to understand that if Katharine Bouchage Weymouth, publisher and CEO of Washington Post Media couldn’t pay her bills he’d be amongst the unemployed.
The plight of the average citizen is what this election is all about, however those who believe these concerns can be effectively addressed by government are sure to encourage a repeat of the past 2.5 years of incompetent leadership. If you truly care about the troubles of Jane or John Q. Public, address the anemic economy so they have a job, are working full-time and feel secure about their future; this is what they consider the top priority; everyone needs to whine and complain once in a while, but more importantly they need to pay their bills every day. Liberals like to feel the little guy’s pain; Conservatives want to eradicate it; important difference.