Unconvinced by Ben Bernanke's prayers, a total of 78% of Americans now say the national economy is getting worse. In the last days, Hillary Clinton's campaign in Texas adopted a more populist tone with a commercial about the economy, available on You Tube, or here. That may well be too little, too late: if her campaign had focused ont the economy and the middle class from the beginning, many primaries would have gone in a different direction. Today, only 14% of Americans approve of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy, 79% disapprove, and 7% are undecided. Only hard-core Republicans still support the President, and their number halved in a month: they were 29% in January according to a poll by the American Research Group. In February 2007, a solid 40% of voters approved Bush's performance, and it is plain that the crisis of subprime mortgages is hitting American families much more than the White House, Congress, or the candidates are willing to admit. This reality, however, will not have the political consequences it should if the Democratic candidates do not offer credible plans for the future. So far, both Hillary and Obama have only mumbled vague proposals of "renegotiating" the trading pact NAFTA (read the most recent controversy in the New York Times). That will go nowhere: the Democrats desperately need new ideas, putting an end to the "compassionate Republicans" attitude they have adopted since 1980.
