Obama's Three Word Slogan for 2012: 'Our Vision for the Future'

In an interview yesterday with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, President Obama was asked, "If hope and change define the 2008 campaign, what two words are going to make--are going to define 2012?"

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I-- you know, I haven't quite boiled it down to a bumper sticker yet. But I think what'll-- define 2012 is-- you know, our vision for the future. That's three words. Four.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: It's five, actually.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: ...Vision for the future. Four. There is-- going to be a contest of values and-- and vision in 2012. Nobody's going to deny that we're not where we need to be. That the economy is not producing enough jobs that pay well and give people-- a leg up on life. And so the question is, "What's most likely to get us there?" Now there are going to be some folks who make the argument that if you just slash spending, eliminate regulations that prevent us from polluting our air or polluting our water or, you know, we bust labor unions, that that in and of itself is going to restore the American dream. I don't think most Americans believe that. I think they understand that we've got to invest in making sure we've got the best education system possible, that we've got to invest in basic research. That part of what made us an economic superpower was we had the best technology, the best infrastructure, and that government has some role to play in that. And so the question's going to be-- you know, which vision is more persuasive to the American people?

Empty campaign slogans of "hope" and "change" are so 2008. Welcome in the age of "our vision for the future!" 

It's understandable enough that President Obama can't quite boil down the problems America faces to two words--or three or four. But it would seem that the future is present. The Democratic policies that Obama is intending to run on are what's been in place. And though he's likely to blame the Republicans for preventing him from being bold and courageous and saving the American people as he intended to do, the 2012 election will come down to a single question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

Well, Obama also answered that one in his interview with Stephanopoulos! 

“I don’t think that they’re better off than they were four years ago,” Obama said. “They’re not better off than they were before Lehman’s collapse, before the financial crisis, before this extraordinary recession that we’re going through. I think that what we’ve seen is that we’ve been able to make steady progress to stabilize the economy but the unemployment rate is still way too high.”