Obama Campaign Bytes for August

As the Democrats approach their convention, President Obama and Vice President Biden are facing some new challenges in their run for a second term. First, the national economy remains a significant issue. The recession that has lasted throughout the president’s term refuses to go away. There are signs of improvement in some economic areas–such as monthly job numbers. But the overall strength of the economy remains a problem. Getting voters’ support for a second term when many of them feel that their lives are not improving is a difficult challenge.

Targeting Taxes, Supporting Women, Helping Students

The Obama campaign team has kept busy during the summer getting out its message. The president, vice president, and the First Lady have been traveling around the country explaining how their administration would protect the middle class taxpayer from having to take on more of a tax burden. This is because, according to the Democrats, Romney’s plan to make the Bush administration tax cuts permanent would drastically reduce taxes for those earning over $250,000 and thus shift the tax burden to the middle class.

Also, Obama is promoting the benefits of his health care reform law and how it benefits women. For example, pregnant women now have a number of preventative medical services that are provided without insurance payments needed. The Obama campaign hopes that highlighting these achievements of the president’s first term will make him an attractive choice to female voters. Obama has also been reminding women voters that his first signed piece of legislation while president was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009. This law works to guarantee women equal pay for men in the same field by expanding the possibilities of workers to sue their employers in cases where they are not being paid fairly.

Finally, the president spent time this summer pushing Congress to pass a freeze on interest rates for federally-supported college loans. Congress did pass the law, which prevented some college loan rates from doubling overnight from 3.4 percent interest to 6.8 percent interest. It is calculated that this legislation will help more than 7 million students, saving them an average of $1,000 each on their loans.

The president has been taking advantage of his executive power to push for change. And his reelection campaign is focused on the successes that he has managed to achieve. Whether or not his actions will add up to being enough votes to keep him in Washington is the question for the next few months.