Neil Cavuto, cable television's unapologetic free-market voice, its vocal deficit hawk, describes his world as "an economic field of dreams," a paradise for viewers trying to make sense of trends driving today's uncertain economy -- and at the same time keep up with the 2012 presidential election.
Cavuto, 54, who directs content and coverage for Fox Business Network, talked to Sunshine State News in a telephone interview Monday about a host of election issues, from the GOP candidates to Florida Gov. Rick Scott and President Barack Obama.
Cavuto told SSN that FBN "goes way beyond regular market hours to cover the economy as it should be, in depth and in perspective. We discovered a long time ago that if you build it they will come -- at Fox, we built it, and the audience is here big-time."
Look for Cavuto as he anchors coverage of the Florida Presidential Primary beginning at 7:55 tonight on Fox Business Network. Guests include former presidential candidate Herman Cain; U.S. Reps. Connie Mack, R-Fla. and John Mica, R-Fla.; Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi; former California Treasurer Phil Angelides; and former NYSE Chairman Dick Grasso, among others.
The popular anchor of FBN's daily, hour-long program, "Your World With Neil Cavuto," (4-5 p.m. EST, Monday-Friday), claims he's made a commitment to cover the 2012 elections from a wholly economic perspective.
"At FBN we're neither red nor blue," he says. "We're focused on the green. We follow money.
"It's not about social issues this year. It's about housing and health care and money in your pocket."
When asked if he agreed with Scott, that the election is about jobs, and that the candidate with the best plan for creating them would win, Cavuto said he did -- absolutely.
"The governor's got that one right.
"Jobs matter," he said. "Security matters. Having enough to take care of your family and loved ones, matter. The over-arching issue in each and every presidential election always comes back to the economy."
He explained that Bill Clinton capitalized on that, and Ronald Reagan built back-to-back landslides expounding on that. In times of war and international strife, he said, financial matters may rightly take a back seat but not too far a back seat.
He said, "the candidate who best crystallizes how he is going to right America's economic ship, and provide those jobs, and trigger that opportunity, and get companies that have been hoarding cash abroad to bring that cash back here wins. Its as simple as that."
Are the four GOP candidates addressing the issues that will move the economy forward?
Cavuto is proud of Fox's above-and-beyond-the-call assessment of each candidate's nuances on the economy, its penchant for "getting under the hood," seeing how each galvanizes the issues. "That's the difference between us and them," he said of competing news networks, "and we're live every caucus night, no matter how long it takes."
He sees each candidate as offering a unique but remarkably vanilla approach to solving the economic crisis. They all want to cut taxes to spur growth. And they all want to cut spending so Washington stops hogging all the capital, so that private money can spur more growth, he said.
Explained Cavuto, "Of all the Republican candidates, clearly Ron Paul wants to cut spending the most. Some fear his proposal to hack more than one trillion dollars in spending in his very first year in office, would be too jarring. Frankly, I dont think it would be jarring enough."
Do conservatives underestimate President Obama, his economic recovery credentials and his electability?
They certainly do, Cavuto says. "History is defined by upsets, so I'm leery of taking anything for granted in spite of Obama's low numbers now. The president has a phenomenal speaking voice, all-around charisma, and the media like him.
"He's also had 21 months of steady job growth -- not nearly enough, but still ... Fact is, if the American people perceive the economy's on the mend in November, his favorable numbers probably will have risen and he could win easily."
Amid the doom and gloom of the recession's worst moments, how optimistic is Cavuto that the economy is on the rebound?
"I'm not smart enough to time a recovery for you, but I believe we have one coming," he said. "Call me cautiously optimistic. We have one gigantic problem to overcome: Our total GDP is exceeded by everything we owe for the first time in our history. This is very bad. But we are seeing some good signs, as I said earlier.
"What you have to remember is that the United States of America is still the last best place on earth. I don't know about you, but in all my years I've never seen an outbound flotilla of boats with people wanting to go to another country. When all is said and done," observed Cavuto, "we are still the greatest nation to dream of a bright future and reach for the stars."
Cavuto was named anchor and managing editor of business news for Fox News Channel in July 1996. He is now senior vice president of business news, and continues to serve as anchor and managing editor.
He also directs content and business news coverage for the Fox Business Network, where he hosts Cavuto at 6 p.m. EST.
He has covered some of the most important business stories of the last two decades, including the 1987 stock market crash, Microsoft's antitrust lawsuit, and the financial scandals involving Enron, Tyco and Martha Stewart. In addition, Cavuto is the author of two New York Times' bestsellers, "More Than Money: True Stories of People Who Learned Life's Ultimate Lesson" (ReganBooks 2004) and "Your Money or Your Life" (ReganBooks 2006).
Named "the best interviewer in broadcast business news" by The Journalist and Financial Reporter, Cavuto has been nominated for five CableACE awards and has interviewed all Fortune 500 CEOs.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
