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Well, the economic recovery was successful even though the Democrats opposed the reforms every step of the way. And it is clear the Democrats have no clear plan to strengthen our economy, as Republicans do.

Austerity is devastating these communities. The working poor, public sector workers, the disabled, and the vulnerable are the hardest hit by this bankrupt and ideologically driven policy.

Democrats are going to proudly run on the fact that we turned the economy around. It was our policies under President Obama's leadership through the Recovery Act, through investing in the automobile industry.

The more we can do to address fiscal austerity, the better our markets will do, and there is a real political shift to doing that.

In my view, the future of politics is, without a doubt, social liberalism married to economic conservatism. Which means we have to make an economic argument to social liberals, that it's OK to vote for us. But we won't run the economy into the ground at the same time.

Look, 85% percent of Democrats think the economy's fine. What does that tell you about these people?

It is clear that the economy has not gotten better for everyone.

We, the Social Democrats, are convinced that capitalism needs to be tamed a second time. The first time we achieved that in Germany for many decades with the social market economy. That is no longer enough. Now we need to do it in Europe and even globally.

The last thing they want is a revitalized economy now. I'm not saying the Democrats don't want a strong economy. Don't misunderstand. They just don't want it now.