Obama Grows a Pair - Finally!

[admiralsnackbar]

NM reading fail

[TeyshaBlue]

I don't know what the new jobs are like, but my wife found another one. Of course, it pays about 2/3rds what her last job, of 18 years, did. She counts herself lucky tho.

[florige]

How is he lying? Everything said was the truth.

[z0sa]

That's a fair criticizm of the article I posted, but EVAY's was reacting to the fact that job creation was stagnant under Bush.

http://usbudget.blogspot.com/2008/03...and-prior.html

The average unemployment rate for each president since WW2. Bush's 4.7% average over two terms is on the lower end of the spectrum, and for a small portion of his latter term, unemployment skyrocketed.

41% of the USA (2007 numbers from wikipedia) is either over 65 or under 20, how many jobs do we reasonably expect teens and the elderly to take up?

Unless someone can find me an argument that there were tons of people needing jobs (like now), tons of people having lost jobs (like now), or there being tons of new jobs opening up due to advances in technology or otherwise, I'm not sure why it's "only" 1 million jobs Bush helped create.

This isn't to defend Bush nor attack Obama, but let's keep aware of the context in which Obama is creating these new jobs.

[admiralsnackbar]

Fair enough, Zosa -- I'm convinced.

[EVAY]

http://usbudget.blogspot.com/2008/03...and-prior.html

The average unemployment rate for each president since WW2. Bush's 4.7% average over two terms is on the lower end of the spectrum, and for a small portion of his latter term, unemployment skyrocketed.

41% of the USA (2007 numbers from wikipedia) is either over 65 or under 20, how many jobs do we reasonably expect teens and the elderly to take up?

Unless someone can find me an argument that there were tons of people needing jobs (like now), tons of people having lost jobs (like now), or there being tons of new jobs opening up due to advances in technology or otherwise, I'm not sure why it's "only" 1 million jobs Bush helped create.

This isn't to defend Bush nor attack Obama, but let's keep aware of the context in which Obama is creating these new jobs.

Zosa, it was precisely the low unemployment rate under Bush that made me so surprised at the actual number than Brownstein reports.

And, in fairness, Brownstein himself points out that the actual number under Bush is impacted by the severity of the recession at the last part of his term, and that the numbers under Obama are impacted by coming OUT of such a problem.

Since I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, I find myself free to react to data without a political agenda.

My comment regarding whether or not the Democrats will make political hay of these numbers was simply a reflection that most people on these forums, regardless of their political affiliation, would be hard pressed to assert that the Democrats have been very effective in framing the economic debate in the electorate for the last 18 months or so. And, at some point, they need to take responsibility for that.

[elbamba]

I guess the only concern that I have are whether or not the jobs created are going to stick. Are they going to be summer jobs that people lose after a few months? I know a lot of people that are getting jobs working for the census bureau but will lose those jobs shortly.

I hope the economy recovers and the job rate improves. I have seen a lot of people hit by the economy over the last two years who are in dire need.