It's the economic plan....

The election will be about the economy, but more about the candidate's economic plans than anything else.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reelected by a landslide during the depths of the Great Depression because the people knew that the Republicans were responsible for the economic conditions of the time.  In the same, way the GOP is also responsible for today's mess.

However, this fact alone probably would not be enough to reelect President Obama.  FDR won because the people thought he had a superior plan for rebuilding the economy as compared to the Republicans who simply wanted to go back to pro-business, pro-rich policies.

For this reason, the Obama campaign will need to show that they have the better plan for the economy, which is definitely the truth.  However, ordinary people might need this drilled into their heads with a lot of repetition of simple messages.

Romney basically wants to downsize the government in the same way he downsized and folded companies with Bain Capital.

However, we have seen how this type of strategy does not work.  It didn't work when Herbert Hoover tried it during the Great Depression and it has not worked in Europe where most countries have implemented austerity policies since the worldwide economic meltdown began in 2007.

Democrats and progressives need to hammer this message home, not only in order to win in 2012, but to avoid a possible disastrous economic collapse.  Indeed, it looks like the U.S. economy may take another hit due to the turmoil in Europe, so we need someone like President Obama in office to fight for the 99%.