Singular Focus on the Economy Leads to One-Note Campaigns Mitt Romney thinks President Obama has failed to deliver the economic recovery Americans deserve. Mr. Obama thinks Mr. Romney would take the country back to policies that will hurt the middle class. In speech after speech, the two presidential candidates are making the same points again and again. Sometimes there are new rhetorical flourishes or a slightly adjusted approach. But as they crisscross the country, little changes. And with months of campaigning left, there's no reason to think anything will. The singular focus on the economic woes of the country has produced a kind of one-note campaign on both sides. And with the nation's economy having settled into a slump, the campaign speeches have, too. Both candidates traveled to Ohio on Thursday to deliver what their campaigns signaled would be important messages. The president's team, in particular, described the speech as a major effort to frame his economic argument as the campaign heads into the middle of the summer. But in almost an hour, Mr. Obama offered no new proposals that might change the dynamic of the campaign. Nor did he explain his existing proposals in a dramatically new or different way from his previous approach. That message - that the election is a choice between competing visions - has been his mantra for months, if not longer. A month earlier, at the official kickoff of his re-election campaign in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Obama made essentially the same point, with essentially the same language. "We are making progress and now we face a choice," the president said then at Ohio State University. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and we can't turn back now. Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Romney this week rehashed his standard campaign themes. Speaking in Cincinnati, Mr. Romney said the president "hasn't delivered a recovery for the economy." Compare that to Mr. Romney's announcement speech a year ago in New Hampshire, when he said that when Mr. Obama took office, "the economy was in recession. He made it worse. And he made it last longer. Repetition in presidential politics is not new. The first Friday of every month, for example, we go through a "didn't we just do that" moment when the Labor Department's latest payroll numbers are released. Campaign operatives know that repeating a message over and over can help drive it into the minds of voters who have plenty of reasons to be distracted. And many voters are hearing the arguments for the first time as they begin to tune in to the political battle for control of the White House. But even in that context, Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama seem to have settled quickly on their messages, and they are sticking to them no matter what. Events could change that, of course. A dramatic improvement in the economy in the next several months could force Mr. Romney to alter his strategy (as he seemed poised to do during several months of economic improvement at the beginning of the year). Events overseas could yet hijack the presidential conversation. The emerging civil war in Syria and the dramatic dissolution of the Egyptian Parliament are reminders that presidents have to worry about issues beyond the domestic economy. And there's still the possibility that one of the candidates concludes that his approach to the economy is not working, and makes an abrupt - and newsworthy - shift in message. At the moment, Mr. Obama seems the most likely candidate for a shift if his advisers conclude they need a new way of dealing with the anemic economic recovery. But for now, voters (and reporters) seem destined to hear the same messages from the candidates over and over again for the next five months.