NOT THEIR UNICORN RIDER:

No winning in economy blame game (Mark Z. Barabak, 9/17/10, Los Angeles Times)

Democrats have a strategy as they battle history and a partisan headwind to keep control of Congress: Remind voters of the financial mess Obama inherited and convince them that putting Republicans in charge would mean returning to the policies that helped crater the economy.

While Fisher speaks of holes and shovels, Obama refers to cars and ditches, saying Republicans ran the country off the road and now want the keys again. The choice in November, the president said last week in Cleveland, is "between sliding backward and moving forward."

The strategy, however, doesn't seem to be working so well here in Ohio -- where Fisher trails Portman -- or elsewhere across the country.

Though most Americans remain critical of Bush's record on the economy -- 71% in a recent USA Today-Gallup poll said he deserved a great deal or moderate amount of blame for the slow growth and high jobless rate --more than half of those polled were unhappy with Obama's performance. More to the point, they hold him responsible for fixing the problem, regardless of who caused it.

Faulting Bush, some said in Ohio, sounds like the typical Washington sniping that Obama promised to end when he ran for president in 2008.