Washington Post ^ | 6-2-2012 | Dan Balz
Friday’s dismal jobs report and some unexpected words from Bill Clinton delivered a bracing reminder to President Obama and his advisers that the election remains primarily a referendum on his record and that their path to victory may lie less in trying to discredit Republican Mitt Romney and more in winning a battle of ideas with their Republican rival.
The latest report — just 69,000 jobs were added last month — was far worse than forecasters had predicted and undermined the administration’s contention that the economy is truly on a path to recovery.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
(Editorial)
For the month of May, the jobless rate jumped to 8.2%, a mediocre
number of jobs were added, hourly earnings barely moved, hours worked fell,
consumer confidence cratered. On Friday, the Dow gave back all its gains on the
year. Welcome to another Summer of Recovery!
Acknowledging the grimness of the situation, Obama promptly blamed Bush. But
he had an idea. He said a good way to restore the economy to robust health was
for people to start "replacing some thingamajig for their furnace" in June.
Another good way to fix the economy is to replace some thingamajig in the White
House in November.
After blaming ATM machines, Japanese earthquakes, the Arab Spring and the Irish Spring for his lousy economy, Obama has zeroed in on the real underlying cause: Outdated furnace thingamajigs. But, cheer up, things could be worse! In a speech Friday, Obama congratulated his administration for having turned the economy around, from worse to bad.
Alan Krueger, Obama's head honcho at the Council of Economic Advisers, issued a statement recognizing the grimness of the situation and promptly blamed Bush. "Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight," he reassured Americans. He complained that "we are still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," otherwise known as "Obamanomics."
Obama is also blaming his lousy economy on Europe, the same Europe that Obama wants America to emulate.
The media were stunned and shocked that the "economists" they rely on every month for routinely unreliable predictions got it wrong again. It was all so "unexpected."
"The unemployment rate unexpectedly increased ..." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"The jobless rate unexpectedly rose to 8.2 ..." -- BusinessWeek
"Employers [added] a less-than-expected 69,000 jobs in the month [of May] ..." -- Reuters
To paraphrase Rummy, if you're the media, there are expected expecteds; there are things we expect to expect. We also know there are expected unexpecteds; that is, we expect there are some things we don't expect. But there are also unexpected unexpecteds; that is, there are some things we don't expect to unexpect. And if you're confused by all this, congratulations! You are now an "expert"! The key is to perfect your skill at making erroneous predictions. "Expert" Mark Zandi, the architect of Obama's failed "Stimulus," has honed making unreliable predictions to a science. He expected 165,000 payroll jobs for May, the jobless rate to fall to 8% and major upward revisions for March and April. (Weaken your grasp of how things are and you, too, can be a Mark Zandi!)
With bad news on the economy surfacing daily, expect from Obama & Co ever wackier ideas. His lunatic followers think (a) the failed Stimulus failed because it wasn't costly enough, (b) interest rates are still too high (they want QE3) and (c) Obama deserves reelection. If consumer confidence is in the toilet, it's because Obama hasn't explained how awesome he is.
Obama himself is an epic failed experiment to see if a dimwitted ACORN Chicago community organizer lacking a business background could turn an economy around by fooling with Health care for the better part of his first two years in office and if depriving businesses of income would encourage hiring. After nearly four years of stultifying Obamanomics, the American economy has been turned into a giant no-fly zone for business. Had enough?
After blaming ATM machines, Japanese earthquakes, the Arab Spring and the Irish Spring for his lousy economy, Obama has zeroed in on the real underlying cause: Outdated furnace thingamajigs. But, cheer up, things could be worse! In a speech Friday, Obama congratulated his administration for having turned the economy around, from worse to bad.
Alan Krueger, Obama's head honcho at the Council of Economic Advisers, issued a statement recognizing the grimness of the situation and promptly blamed Bush. "Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight," he reassured Americans. He complained that "we are still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," otherwise known as "Obamanomics."
Obama is also blaming his lousy economy on Europe, the same Europe that Obama wants America to emulate.
The media were stunned and shocked that the "economists" they rely on every month for routinely unreliable predictions got it wrong again. It was all so "unexpected."
"The unemployment rate unexpectedly increased ..." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"The jobless rate unexpectedly rose to 8.2 ..." -- BusinessWeek
"Employers [added] a less-than-expected 69,000 jobs in the month [of May] ..." -- Reuters
To paraphrase Rummy, if you're the media, there are expected expecteds; there are things we expect to expect. We also know there are expected unexpecteds; that is, we expect there are some things we don't expect. But there are also unexpected unexpecteds; that is, there are some things we don't expect to unexpect. And if you're confused by all this, congratulations! You are now an "expert"! The key is to perfect your skill at making erroneous predictions. "Expert" Mark Zandi, the architect of Obama's failed "Stimulus," has honed making unreliable predictions to a science. He expected 165,000 payroll jobs for May, the jobless rate to fall to 8% and major upward revisions for March and April. (Weaken your grasp of how things are and you, too, can be a Mark Zandi!)
With bad news on the economy surfacing daily, expect from Obama & Co ever wackier ideas. His lunatic followers think (a) the failed Stimulus failed because it wasn't costly enough, (b) interest rates are still too high (they want QE3) and (c) Obama deserves reelection. If consumer confidence is in the toilet, it's because Obama hasn't explained how awesome he is.
Obama himself is an epic failed experiment to see if a dimwitted ACORN Chicago community organizer lacking a business background could turn an economy around by fooling with Health care for the better part of his first two years in office and if depriving businesses of income would encourage hiring. After nearly four years of stultifying Obamanomics, the American economy has been turned into a giant no-fly zone for business. Had enough?
