That man was Ross Perot who ran for President in 1992 as the Reform Party candidate. He used the charts and graphs in half hour and hour "infomercials" that he paid for himself as the cornerstone of his campaign.
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| Ross Perot in 1992 |
Perot ended up garnering 19% of the popular vote. There are those who believe that Bill Clinton would never have defeated George H.W. Bush in 1992 but for Perot entering the race.
It got me to thinking what charts and graphs Donald Trump could use if he employed a similar strategy today. As I have written previously, Trump has to do two things to win. First, he has to keep pounding the message that we simply cannot continue with the status quo. Second, he needs to convince people he can change things and that he is a reasonable change agent. A lot of the latter comes down to how he conducts himself in the next 30 days. He needs to be more like Mike Pence and a lot less like Tim Kaine
In fact, if Trump cannot improve his debate performance against Hillary on Sunday night, perhaps he should forget about talking during the remainder of the campaign and get the pointer out to make his points on the charts below.
All the charts and graphs are from the FRED economic database of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. If these graphs don't make the case that we need a change of direction, I don't know what will.
Most of these problems were there before President Obama took office. However, if you look closely at the charts you will see that most of these issues got much worse during the last 8 years.Of course, Obama and the Democrats promised exactly the opposite when they were asking for your vote at that time.
Why would anyone think that things will change under Hillary?
Federal Debt
Student Loan Debt Held by the Federal Government
People on Food Stamps
Money Printing
Health Care Inflation
Imports of Good and Services
Labor Force Participation
Labor Force Participation-Black or African American
Workers' Share of Economy
Home Ownership
These all point to a change in direction.
Are there enough willing and able to recognize it?
FRED? I assume Fed Reserve Economic Data.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked for the National Bank in 1974 FRED was the name of our new central computer. F*cking Ridiculous Electronic Device.
It turned out to be useless.
But I take your point.