GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. -- With jobs on the minds of most Americans, President Obama is working to keep his on a three day midwest bus tour full of promise, and promises.
"The single most important thing we want is making sure that middle class families and small businesses are successful," Obama said. "Because if they're successful we're going to be successful."
And the nation's success might well determine the President's, especially with election day about 15 months out. That's likely why the Obama on Monday in Cannon Falls reminded voters he took office with a trillion dollar deficit. Yet, experts say many Americans blame him anyway.
"We've held presidents, and Washington, accountable," said Arthur Rolnic, the former research director at the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis and currently a Humphrey Institute fellow at the University of Minnesota. "And a lot of things they have no control over."
Things, for example, like health care costs and the aging population, both of which are big factors in the $14 trillion debt.
And then there's unemployment, which has been around nine percent for more than two years, and there's no sign it's getting better.
"The fact that unemployment has been this high for this long in the recovery has been a puzzle for economists," Rolnick said.
And that creates a political puzzle as well. President Obama had two main themes during his Minnesota visit. First, tell Americans he knows just how bad our nation is feeling. And second, assure them he can change it.
"I have absolutely no doubt that we can get this economy going again," Obama said. "We can people back to work again, small businesses can start growing again."
So can he do that? Experts say it won't happen fast, and it won't be easy. But if President Obama wants to stay President Obama, it's likely that it's necessary.
"These things move together," said Kathryn Pearson, associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. "So, when the economy is doing well, in general, presidential approval is higher."
Whether it's politics or popularity, it might be true that it's still the economy, stupid. But it's going to take lots of smarts to fix it.
"The opposition is going to have to convince the public that they have something in mind to turn this economy around," Rolnic said. "And I'm going to argue both sides are going to have a hard time doing that."
"The president's fate," Pearson agreed, "Really depends on the economy."
As the President and other lawmakers debate how to fix the economy, billionaire investor Warren Buffett has his own suggestion: tax the rich.
In a column he wrote for the New York Times today, Buffett says the wealthy, including him, should pay more taxes, saying we need to end tax breaks and raise rates for the ultra-rich.
President Obama talked about Buffet's idea during his speech in Cannon Falls, saying erasing our debt is possible if everyone makes compromises.
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