In 1994, David Axelrod, former Senior Advisor to President Obama and now Communications Director for his re-election campaign, claimed you can't talk about progress while the middle class is hurting, contradicting Obama's current strategy.
Axelrod said:
"One of the interesting things about this, is that when you cite these statistics that say the economy is improving, you almost do political damage to yourself. If you stand up and claim great progress you're only frustrating this alienated middle class more."