He's lost my vote.

Polls among the undecided is treacherous territory. They seem to be an impatient lot and also usually are a distance away from people who most strongly felt the full brunt of the Bush years. They tune into Romney's song, and we know he sings off key, not about the reality of slow recovery. Mr. Romney knows that there has been no support in Congress to aid those wounded by bad business practices, euphemistically called a housing bubble, Obstruction from Republicans in Congress to make any meaningful temporary programs to help those suffering because of job loss or keeping decent shelter over their head is kept well disguised. The house was on fire but Republicans thought they should negotiate with the firemen for a better price. When decades of economic abuse by financiers, bankers, and padding bottom line businesses ignore the needs of their fellow Americans a very deep hole is produced. When it all collapses because the supply of money required to set it right is missing in action and suffering is intensified. Instead of these Republican miscreants fessing up they act entitled and have made the economy limp along. It would have still taken some time to put things back together but it would have been a lot quicker if those who caused the damage, maybe inadvertently, giving them the benefit of the doubt, realized that their business culture had harmed too many. They turned their backs instead and fought to keep their way of doing business alive. So I think the President answered it correctly. No gussied up political nonsense but straight forwardly answering by saying he's working on it and it will take some more time. The honest answer can sometimes get you in trouble politically because people prefer dreams of prosperity by lottery over the hard work of holding the right people to account and putting back the money through temporary borrowing that parts of our economy squandered. The sad thing is they still hold on to the cash and ask the rest of us to give them even more money for their ill gotten gains before they will invest in the most productive people on the face of the Earth--the American worker.

There is no serious reason why anyone should vote for Obama. He has been a failure in just about every measure, from the economy to his failures in Libya. Those who do vote for him are just still voting for Elvis, the rock star. He is not a serious president, but he is the coolest guy in the room.

You can always count on Joan Vennochi to cut through the cacaphony and get to the heart of the matter...Obama's failure to connect on the economic issues that hang like a dark cloud over this country are what has given the GOP hope for victory this year. I watch my fellow Dems get worked up over Big Bird and Binders of Women. I wonder how people who have no job or are underemployed or have a new degree with no where to use it feel about the hoopla...it's hard to get too worked up about equal pay when there is no job, no pay...this is not the hope and change election, it is the change election: when 56% of voters say the country is heading in the wrong direction, how can it be anything else? Obama MUST show how he will take the US in a better direction if he is given a second chance.

Obama now has a record that he has to defend.  He can no longer vote present.  You and others at the Globe keep asking for more details from Romney which is fair.  Your article points out quite correctly that we have no details from Obama.  If an undecided voter is less optimistic today, it is inconceivable to me that anything that Obama has said so far will make them feel anything other than ......if Obama is elected we're going to have 4 more years of the same.  It's hard to have hope if there's no vision!!!!

unemployment status for last week just came out and 388,000 more people applied for unemployment up 46,000 from prev. week, but then they did not put in Calif. unemployment applicants to that week and is why the rate went down...how convient. More on food stamps more on unemployment more on medicaid more in poverty more college grads. cannot find jobs etc. and more divide among people because of this president who cannot accept his failures. and added $5 trillion to the deficit he promised to cut in half but increase instead. With Pres. Obama in office expect the same or worse if re-elected.

With FEW weeks LEFT before the election, WHY HAVE VOTERS NOT RECEIVED NEWS FROM OBAMA & AXLEROD & JARRETT & MICHELE ABOUT THEIR PLANS FOR ANOTHER OBAMA TERM?

Why will the press corp not ask hard facts from the Democrat president?

Stop the whining about Gov.Mitt Romney's expertise & vision for the future.

There are several key reasons to vote for Romney.  First is the republican platform.  If you're a member of the 1%, than you should, in good conscience vote for Mitt.  It makes sense to vote in your self interest.  Never mind the interest of your grandkids, because the Republicans may be in trouble on that.  But at least there is a compelling current reason to vote Republican to keep your millions to yourself.  If you are strong in your conviction that abortion should be made illegal, and that government should control access to birth control, you should vote for Mitt.  And so on down the list created by the Republican platform.  

The second reason to vote for Mitt is to vote for a white male.  If you are convinced that the Obama election was a tragic mistake for the country, and that things need to be returned to "normal", then voting for a handsome white male is the way to go.  Never mind the fact that Romney had already given numerous signals that he is profoundly incapable of reading human emotions.  Between his trip overseas where various countries were insulted by his obtuseness, to his spontaneous remarks about owning lots of Cadillacs and knowing NASCAR owners, he has shown a seamless ability to be out of step with real human beings.  It's a good bet that those comments have only stopped lately because his team has stuck a sock in his mouth.  Having someone who appears to be almost autistic in the White House would be a curiousity for future historians. 

A vote for Obama, on the other hand, would be an admission that voting for a less-than-perfect person who prioritizes the interests of the 99%, and their grandchildren, is the lesser of two evils.  Sure, Obama should have done a number of things differently.  But we are talking about a president, not a king or dictator.  How much would he have preferred to do differently?  Quite a bit.  It's not entirely under his control.  

I'll take the tiget given this:

Initial jobless claims rose by 46,000 to 388,000 last week, up from a revised 342,000 the prior week, with the four-week average at 366,000, higher than the 365,000 seen the week before

So Romney simply boasts that he is going to create 12 million new jobs, as well as implement an unworkable tax cut and dilute regulations on business and Wall St. That's a vision? Where is the beef? The details? This makes him a more competent economic leader? You are joking.

This was the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. How easy to forget how deep a hole we got pushed into--and why. Whatever Obama's shortcomings, his policies have worked better than those of his predecessor. We have made some progress. Where was Roosevelt after 4 years of the New Deal? Want Obama to conjure up a magical vision, go poof!, and make the boo-boo go away?

The Republican vision is Trickle Down Economics (aka "Supply Side"). This vision has remained essentially unchanged since Coolidge in the 1920s. Romney's speeches are indistinguishable from those of Hoover in the 30s. (The only difference between them is that Hoover had a little more integrity and was possibly a mite more compassionate once people started starving).  Trickle Down was then handed down from Reagan to Bush. And here we are again with the same bogus vision. Please study history. I would rather have a pragmatist in the White House than another patent medicine salesman hawking his worthless elixirs.

Both candidates are keeping it vague. Romney because he knows that if details about his tax cut and Medicare "reform" got out, it would sink him with the electorate. Obama because he knows that more details would earn him the same kind of smears from Republican/Tea Party extremists that he received from when he offered his vision of health care for all, namely "Death Panels" and dire socialist conspiracies.

How about this for a vision: a candidate who is actually a thoughtful guy and who believes that in tough times everyone should step up and kick in.

The Republican vision is Trickle Down Economics

So how do tax cuts not stimulte the economy?

http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?path=A1cuts_121018.png&docId=629790&xmpSource=&width=409&height=655&caption=

And spendings impact:

http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?path=Spending-Biz90.gif&docId=629794&xmpSource=&width=800&height=492&caption=

I like how you wrote twice that Obama didn't get a chance to respond. This even though his speaking time was over 3 minutes more than Romney's over the course of the debate, and overall through the 3 debates (including VP) Democrats have had over 11 minutes more to speak than their Republican challengers. But sure, keep complaining that Obama didn't get a chance to speak, you look really good doing that.

This entire column is based on a false premise: that the President can fix the economy. The economy has gone through cycles continually since the country's founding. That's not likely to change, and no President faced with an economic downturn has been able to do more than tread water and wait for the tide to come back in.

The government has even less control over the economy in our current world. The entire planet is having problems. We all collapsed together and we all have to be restored together. Some people seem to relish problems in Europe or China or Japan, but our economy depends on their economies.

Realistically, the main thing our government can do is try to moderate the effects of a downturn via stimulous projects and unemployment insurance. Stimulous has gotten a negative reputation among some people because they looked on it as a cure. It's not; it's only a pain reliever.

Romney would outsource us to China, that's what venture capitalists do.  Then he would strip the Middle Class of Social Security and Medicare.  He would eliminate the home mortgage tax deduction and decrease the 1% tax burden.  By the end of the 4 years the middle class will be in a hole so deep it will take at least a generation for it to recover.

When are people going to realize that the entire global economy is in recession and stop whining that our recovery isn't fast enough?

Do people think there is some magic switch to just make everything perfect in a week?

Get real people.