Obama's desperate gamble

NY Times:

Obama’s Team Taking Gamble Going Negative

 The opportunities and the risks are greater for President Obama, who seeks to shape perceptions of Mitt Romney just as more voters are starting to tune in to the race.

Politicians take risk like this when they are trying to leverage themselves out of a desperate situation.  Obama's policies have failed to produce the results he predicted and have been deeply unpopular.  So like a trader at a big bank who finds himself in a hole, he goes after riskier and riskier trades losing credibility and political capital in the process.  The downside to leverage can be even greater than the upside.

Obama's big problem is that reality and his own slip of the tongue comments keeps stepping on his negative message.  He has gone from, "The private sector is doing fine" to "You didn't build that," to "Our plan worked."  That has left him trying to explain what he "really meant."  Meanwhile, his opponents are grinding out their own ads that keep him on the defensive.