The editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post was on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell yesterday. After pointing out that Obama had held 37 fundraisers so far in this tense year, she made the following observation:
But the point is that the most important number going into 2012 is going to be the unemployment number. And there is absolutely no prospect at the moment that would make us believe that unemployment number is going to be below nine percent. Now that is really the greatest fear for the White House. And of course Mitt Romney again and again is talking about the failure of the President to produce jobs, and he doesn’t have to tell us how he would have done it. He just has to point out to that failure. And when the President again and again talks about how, I mean, I went through and looked since 2009 how many times he has said, “Jobs priority number one,” “The sustained focus of this administration,” “The relentless focus of this administration,” “We’re pivoting to jobs.” Nobody believes it any more.
(quoted from NewsBusters.Org)
Wow! When the lefties get frustrated with the President and aren’t buying his spiel anymore, his chances for re-election take a decided turn for the worst.
There is more in the article, including quotes from Alex Wagner, another HuffPoster slamming the President’s “green jobs” shtick to Mr. Tingles himself, Chris Matthews. Be sure and read the whole thing.
August 5th, 2011 at 1:33 am
Governor Romney didn’t improve his state’s employment rate. Romney’s real contribution to employment was when he used Bain Capital to layoff thousands of workers. Sure it’s good for business to get rid of inefficient workers/jobs. But if you think for a second this won’t be Obama’s go-to talking point in the general election, you’re fooling yourself.
August 5th, 2011 at 1:51 am
Hey, Sampo!
It’s good to see ya! We haven’t had a decent liberal around here since your quick, short, cryptic post last February. Where have you been? We’ve missed ya.
August 5th, 2011 at 2:29 am
A decent liberal? That’s what they’re calling me? Not sure how much sarcasm was there but thanks anyway.
August 5th, 2011 at 3:09 am
Obama should be nailed hard whenever he comes out with his “green jobs”, WTF, expand Amtrak stuff. Which means he should pretty much be ridiculed after all his speeches. It is so unserious as to make one cry.
August 5th, 2011 at 3:22 am
1:
If Obama wants to compare job creation records, both public and private, Mitt would surely be happy to oblige.
August 5th, 2011 at 4:12 am
Romney in the private sector did a good job at helping startups, which is nice.
But his political views are shortsighted and they are just going to have the same effect as Obama’s in prolonging the recession. He may boost us to one more bubble spurt for a year or so, but its inevitable. The bill is due. We blew our credit bubble up. Now it has to come back down. And not even Romney can stop that.
Romney, like most leaders on both sides, wants 10 years of malaise rather than 2 years of pain and growth afterwards for as long as we can keep it.
Sometimes I just want to pray for it all to miraculously tank so the evil can get their due, those who lived in the present at the expense of our future can pay up, and I and my family can look forward to the future without the cloud over our heads (and Medicare bills) the last couple of generations left us.
August 5th, 2011 at 4:26 am
And “green jobs” as practiced is BS, but the government simply taking its money and building wind and solar generators for example would generate a better return on the investment than ~75% of current federal spending, I bet.
At least wind and solar generation is investment. Not the best investment, but its still pretty good, and better still once the costs of environmental externalities are considered. It is sacrificing money now to provide future payback. This is morally and socially desirable.
Entitlements are not investments!
August 5th, 2011 at 6:47 am
#1 Where do you get your facts? Reference please?
August 5th, 2011 at 7:07 am
I think for some liberals, the debt deal was the straw that broke the camel’s back. There is a growing choir of leftists who not only are questioning Obama’s abilities, but also his commitment to their cause.
The Obama’s Presidency is not lost, and in fact his approvals have thus far tracked Reagan’s fairly closely. But we are now at the point where Reagan’s approvals turned upward. With Obama, I get the sense that we’re at an inflection point now, and he’s dangerously close to the Point of No Return.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:08 am
SixMom,
Google “bain capital layoffs” and you should have enough information
Romney at Bain Capital was indirectly responsible for layoffs by taking control of companies and “improving performance” aka firing people to pump short term profits up.
This is a poor business model in the long run (but who cares about the long run!), but regardless, Romney did also create jobs of course by setting some small businesses on a course for major growth.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:14 am
MWS,
Reagan didn’t inherit something as bad as Obama, though. Obama has definitely made it worse, but starting off with zombie banks, bubbles popping all over, and the world set to go down in the flames of its own debt isn’t something that any conventional politician on either side would have handed too well.
Obama’s problem politically is that he hasn’t stuck with his guns and so everyone is just going to hate him and blame him for not doing things the way they wanted as the cause of continuing crisis.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:17 am
There wasn’t a jobs crisis in MA as evidenced by the low unemployment rate. Mitt says the first thing to do in a turnaround is focus, focus, focus. Mitt focused on the budget deficit and turned it around without raising taxes and without robbing from education and infrastructure as Rick Perry has done. We have a jobs crisis in America, a jobs crisis that is fueling the debt crisis. Romney’s focus is on jobs. Period.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:36 am
How are we going to get those jobs then?
Slap tariffs on industries who we want to bring jobs back here?
Reverse the concentration of capital by disadvantaging large corporations and favoring small business (where most jobs are created)?
Put them all to work on the highways?
Start World War III, and use our manpower to seize control of some major assets like oil?
Some of these are a little fanciful, but seriously, the issue with jobs isn’t just a temporary downturn. This is a result of policy choices that have left us in this unenviable situation facing high debt, a deflating credit bubble, and bad demographics (lots of older people, less younger people). This is the same thing that hit Japan in ’90 and has basically flatlined their economy over the past 20 years, except they didn’t have bad debt at the start.
We have very few real options.
August 5th, 2011 at 8:42 am
Romney has named 7 habits of highly successful economies.1.The corporate tax rate in the United States should be competitive with the rest of the world. Currently we, along with Japan, have the highest corporate tax rates.
2.Modernize regulations and get rid of the burdensome and overwhelming bureaucracy.
3.Trade policies that are mutually beneficial. Our trading partners should not be the sole beneficiaries of our trade policies. We must also benefit.
4.Energy policies that will establish “energy security” in the United States. We cannot continue to send billions of dollars to other oil producing countries. We need to use our own resources.
5.“The rule of law, to make sure that decisions of government aren’t made on the basis of crony capitalism but instead are based on fairness.”
6.Great schools. Our education is currently in the bottom third in the world. We need to develop our human capital.
7.The government must not spend more than it takes in year after year.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:02 am
“Lay offs… got rid of inefficient workers”… to improve and save business Oh if only someone could do this in washington DC.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:13 am
Obama = Social Agenda > Jobs. Uh huh, just now he is worried about jobs. Obamacare alone was more of a priority than jobs. There is now way he wins.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:16 am
Say whatever you will about Romney’s track record (trust me I will and have gone negative on him), but his unemployment rate went down during his term, Obama’s umemployment rate has gone up and it will go higher.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:47 am
now,
True, but Mitt had the good fortune of governing during the bubble years.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Matt,
The 4 and a half percent unemployment rate he left the state with was considerably below the national average at the time, and only a half-point above what economists consider full employment.
August 5th, 2011 at 10:18 am
LOL… what a joke we have become. We yell and complain that government is too large and spends too much but OH NO, let’s not elect the one guy that spent his career taking on troubled organizations and in most cases, got them on a path of growth and profitability.
Did he have to lay people off? YES. How many people on this site have either been laid off or seen co-workers laid off over the past 3-4 years? I bet we all have seen one or the other. If businesses don’t, they close their doors and everyone becomes unemployed.
So what happens to America if we don’t get the Federal Government cut and under control? Is there really another potential nominee that you guys believe can and will make the necessary cuts? Do they have a track record of doing so or is it just talk?
Get me another candidate that has actually done it and I’ll move them up my board.
August 5th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
10. MPC
I did google it. There were commentary on both sides and you only present one.
“For they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel”
So I recognize you’re presenting a spin, because what you pass over is the fact Bain took over failing companies, as in many more people lose their jobs if Bain is not successful in saving and resurrecting. You focus on the few trimmed jobs at the expense of passing over the majority of jobs that were saved, and companies still operating because of the overhaul. A much larger number of jobs would have been lost had Romney been unsuccessful. And companies do get out of balance and need to be trimmed to survive, go on to grow and do well.
August 5th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
B.S. The b*tch is just trying to fire up that base.