The financial crisis which led to the recession from which the US still has not recovered began after the 2008 presidential campaign was well underway. Some have asserted that the economic crisis played a key role in President Barack Obama's election. This is something of an overstatement. While the crisis, and the recession that followed, helped the challenger, Obama was the clear frontrunner by late summer of 2008. Other than John McCain's surreal and brief suspension of his campaign allegedly to devote his attention to the crumbling economy, the recession played a relatively small role in the 2008 election as much of the story lines around the two candidates, such as the historic nature of Obama's campaign and the widespread frustration with the Bush administration, had been established by the time the economy took its sharpest downward turn.
President Obama took office at a time when addressing the problems caused by the recession was the paramount issue facing the American people after running a campaign that for the most part was focused on a nebulous notion of change. Perplexingly much of the attention paid to the fallout of the economic crisis was oriented around the finance sector, rather than on jobs which was, for many American citizens, the biggest issue facing their communities following the economic crisis.
Jobs were, therefore, not a major focus of the 2008 campaign, but given the relatively high, and stable, unemployment numbers since Obama took office, one might expect jobs to be a major part of the 2012 campaign. As the 2012 election approaches, however, is it becoming very likely that another presidential election will occur without a strong emphasis on jobs. This is quite extraordinary given the relatively high unemployment rates and widespread concern over jobs and joblessness.
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