“The truth of the matter is that, as i said, we’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government.” – Pres. Barack Obama
A VERY BAD week continued for Pres. Obama when he let the words slip during his morning press conference. Nobody heard or bothered to report his full quote, which is offered completely above.
The countdown began… 3… 2… 1 and then came the reaction from Mitt Romney, which was instantaneous.
“He said the private sector is doing fine,” Romney said. “Is he really that out of touch? I think he’s defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the American people. Has there ever been an American president who is so far from reality?”
Addressing about 300 supporters in a grassy downtown park, Romney rattled off a slew of statistics – 23 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, slow economic growth, falling median incomes and record foreclosures – to paint a dire portrait of the U.S. economy.
“For the president of the United States to stand up and say the private sector is doing fine is going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding by a president who’s out of touch,” Romney said. “We’re gonna take back this country and get America working again.”
Not even Mitt Romney could miss this easy layup, a gift for a man who prides himself on his economic prowess, whether it’s true or not. Politics is a game of perception.
Buzzfeed has the nifty graph.
Matt Yglesias had the perfect tweet, with Twitter exploding the second the statement came out of Pres. Obama’s mouth:
Presidential press conferences seem to be all-downside no-upside events. I’m shocked they ever happen.
Pres. Obama should give Pres. Clinton a call to commiserate on their dueling gafferifficness.
“The fundamentals of the economy are strong,” John McCain, September 2008
“D’oh!” Pres. Obama, June 2012
Romney is right in his criticism but too bad he’s not offering any solutions. What exactly does Romney plan to do about foreclosures? I think nothing. All he offers is some well deserved criticism but only is putting forth more failed supply side solutions.
The Democrats keep handing them the ammunition, and the Republicans keep firing it in the wrong direction. People seem to like all the noise, though.
Young Ezra takes on the task of spinning out the “intent” of the comment, ie., private sector relative to public sector, but, in partisan politics, “explanations” never undo, and rarely even contain, the damage.
I am sure you’ll see it 1,342 times in Romney commercials between now and November.
What exactly does Romney plan to do about foreclosures? Well, I guess we can’t accuse you having lacking chutzpah……..after three years of squat from the Democratic administration on this item, you’re going to suggest people hold the vote for the alternative candidate hostage to their commitment to finally do something? Sure, that should be a key campaign advertisement theme of the anti-Romney forces.
Young Ezra is right, for once. Obama was contrasting job growth in the public sector with job losses in the public sector. I wouldn’t have said the private sector is “doing fine” were I in Obama’s shoes, but right now it’s at least adding jobs.
I think Ga6thDem has expressed his/her (sorry, can’t remember which) displeasure with Obama’s leadership enough times that you should be aware that those words weren’t a defense of either Obama or the Democrats, BTW.
Romney is offering more failed supply side solutions. If you like that, go for it. We had eight years of those failures but I’m surprised that conservatives don’t like Obama because hes’ continued most of these policies.
“.after three years of squat from the Democratic administration on this item,”
A more accurate and honest comment would be
“after three years of the repugnantklan/teabagger House sabotaging every effort by the President and Dems to help home owners in a criminal economic war against the American economy and people”
But then accurate and honest seem to be in short supply for some.
The private sector is doing fine. Since the Strimulus package was fully implemented by Dec 2009, the stock market has doubled, corporate profits are at an all time high and 4,5 million private sector jobs have beeen created. Taylor loves to parrot GOP talking points bit in this case she is completly wrong
No, it’s not doing fine, if doing fine has anything to do with new jobs. That 4.5 million barely keeps up with growth in the working age population. Add to it the ten million plus jobs that were lost in the crash, and hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs, and it’s way behind.
Not to nitpick too much, but by most peoples’ math, 10.583 to 12,554 is not quite a doubling, but I do appreciate you adding at least that much value to my portfolio.
I am also a bit surprised a Dem touts corporate profits as a bellwether of a successful administration, but who knows, maybe we are more ideologically kindred than I had otherwise assumed.
I agree from trough to now, the private sector economy has added 4.5M jobs. However, that conveniently leaves out the fact that from inauguration to trough, just about this same number was “lost”. Secondly, until someone here explains what Obama did that caused me to hire more employees in my businesses during his administration, I will have to reluctantly object as to why you give Obama credit and none to me?
It depends on what one is referring to when saying “the private sector.” Those who are employed/underemployed/unemployed? No, of course not. This is not to mention exactly what KIND of jobs have been “created.” I’d venture a good majority are McJobs in the service sector.
Those at the top, sitting on several trillion in cash…they’re just fine, thank you very much. They’re waiting, of course, for “confidence” and “certainty.” Funny, I always thought that if you’re in need of those two things you have no business being in business.
What creates jobs is demand, and there isn’t any. Hasn’t been any true sustainable demand in many years. With the “new normal” or the New World Plantation Economy, geniuses like Thomas Friedman will lecture us ad nauseum that whatever we had ain’t coming back. I know we all make foolish decision in our lives, but not marrying a woman worth $300 million or so was one of my biggest.
Even a cursory review of the Great Depression should give one a clear picture of what is happening now. History is simply repeating itself. Take a look at the hillside shanties of Rio, or the enclave of La Perla in San Juan. That is what our economy (and society) is heading for on our current course. Towards the end of World War II, someone said that Americans have to start interpreting luxuries for necessities. He was simply saying that demand for goods and services is the engine for jobs, growth, and the like.
Now we are being told the opposite, that Americans must interpreting necessities as luxuries. The tax base is being destroyed, and therefore the torchlit mob must descend upon public employees.
In a Pavlovian sense, we are being conditioned to seek the lowest common denominator. In everything.
Of course, all the hard times lately have created a lot of potential demand, if only the people experiencing those hard times could find decent jobs. Ironic that I was explaining to a superior intellect the other day that people wanting to buy things isn’t demand if they can’t afford it, but that potential is definitely there. A bit like the built-up demand that was present at the end of WWII, I suppose, without the savings required to unleash it. Something else will have to do that here, though, since people who have been out of work for years probably don’t have a lot of savings. Jobs that result from doing the things we need to do in America would be a good “something else”.
There are those on Wall Street (and part of Wall Street) that feel the economy is doing fine due to their uh…. stock portfolios growth. A friend of sister is raving about how well how stock’s are performing now and fell that Obama has helped that (and she’s a Republican). Now concerning jobs. As someone that has been laid off from Fortune 500 companies in the IT industry during Clinton’s, Bush’s, and Obama’s presidencies, I’ve never been a “economy is just fine” guy. I’ve been laid off and immediately seen said corporations earnings per share (EPS) shoot straight up. So I know the deal. But when we talk about jobs, I think many are thinking about the good ol’ days of manufacturing powerhouses and real estate giddiness. I look at one of my uncles’s. The man had a 7th grade education and work 40 years at General Motors. Making double and triple time at times. Living good. Those type of jobs and job loyalty are gone baby gone. So both Obama and Romney are out-of-touch without a real plan. And telling people to go back to school (and/or offering assistance) doesn’t do much for a large number of Americans. How are you going to turn a God-fearin’, hard-workin’, Southern heavy equipment operator into an IT Business Analyst? Maybe he just not cut out to be a Business Analyst. Or the hard workin’, textile worker into a chemical engineer? Science and Technology is where it is at. It’s why I’ve been able to take a beatin’ and keep on rollin’. But not EVERYONE is cut out for Science and Technology jobs.
So those people that can’t make the S&T race, they frequently have to take lower paying service jobs that make it difficult to make ends meet or they don’t meet at all. I want Obama and Romney to address skillset changes in the jobs market. How you going to help that situation?
This has been a concern I’ve had about that idea. Let’s stipulate that maybe either the heavy equipment operator or the textile worker is an underachiever intellectually. It’s almost certainly true that there will be some folks who can’t handle the educational requirements. What’s worse, our public education systems are getting worse at producing educated people, not better.
So, yes, I’d like to see what the folks who advance that sort of argument have to say, but so far that question has led to a change of subject.
Those high paying blue collar manufacturing jobs are never coming. It’s not only off shoring the jobs, when the manufacturing comes back the rapid advance of technology requires ever dwindling numbers of workers to produce the same volume of products. In the right to work states applications for jobs at new assembly plants is so fierce that the workers settle for $13.00 an hour jobs and reduced healthcare and pension benefits,
Even the Post Office is beginning to layoff hundreds of thousands of postal worker jobs, technology has cut the mail volume dramatically and most people can pay their monthly bills online or through monthly payments taken out of a personal checking account.
There is no solution and US workers will have to accept a continuing decline in salary, benfits and pension packages. The wealth gap will continue to widen with no end in sight.
RaJensen, it seems President Obama and the Democrats are helping to reduce Labor and Unions in this country. After all the volunteers, and help the Unions are doing, the democrats seem to stab them in the back. At least your honest about the blue collar jobs not coming back. About the Post Office, there was plenty of time to put measures in place to help the Post Office, but Washington is broken, both parties seem to bicker instead of helping the American People. I don’t pay my bills online, I still am old school and pay by check, at least I can help the post office as much as I can.
And what’s also truly terrible is my grammar and such. Such a fail in the beginning of my comment. LOL
Boy, I love this blog. Thanks for the original post, Taylor, and the spot on observations of Cujo, T-Steel, and mrpister. Much food for thought here.
Lady, you are a fucking lunatic. How many brain cells do you have? Can you please make a few declarative sentences, please, before declaring to the others they have provided food for thought?
So, yes, I’d like to see what the folks who advance that sort of argument have to say, but so far that question has led to a change of subject.
I’m never afraid to be blunt. But first, you have to decide whether you need me to participate in the plan or not. If not, then you certainly don’t need to hear my opinion………………..pregnant pause………..
Let’s assume you reluctantly bring yourself to say yes, you need the particpation of fiscal conservatives in launching a plan.
Ok, in order to do that, you have to make the painful leap to become a bargainer, not a proselytizer. Not a lot of liberal ideologists can make that transition. You don’t get to dictate your view, you start with my view and then see if you can move me to yours. If you get didactic, I continue to underwrite obstructionism……..pretty straightforward.
I will start with the fact that I will have tolerance for a government stimulus that goes solely to infrastructure repair projects. $15/hour, but paid for with reductions elsewhere……..take your pick where, I have no aversion to cutting DoD. That’s the path for those that TSteele is looking out for.
Tech training for those who wish to pursue such. Tuition loan basis without interest. 5% principal forgiven for every year of subsequent taxpaying employment (based on 1040s filed.)
Well, let’s see. Maybe that pregnant pause has something to do with the quote being on a different point than the one you’re responding to. Or maybe it’s because you seem to be very confused about the difference between proselytizing and bargaining.
Proselytizing == trying to persuade you
Bargaining == trying to find a solution we can both accept
As for cutting DoD’s budget, I have not only repeatedly advocated that here for just that reason, but here as well. A lot. I’ll stop boring you with links now, but there are lots more. I’ve also advocated ending the “War On Drugs”, so we can stop wasting money on imprisoning people for things we should be treating as medical conditions. That would save us billions of dollars at the various levels of government.
Of course, I have yet to see fiscal conservatives rally around the idea that maybe we should curtail drug patents instead of expanding them, but in fairness, I haven’t seen a lot of liberals in Congress doing it, either. Maybe that last bit is because there are so damn few liberals there anymore, but who knows?
“Ok, in order to do that, you have to make the painful leap to become a bargainer, not a proselytizer. Not a lot of liberal ideologists can make that transition. You don’t get to dictate your view, you start with my view and then see if you can move me to yours. If you get didactic, I continue to underwrite obstructionism……..pretty straightforward.”
BWAHAHAHA! For three years the “fiscal conSERvatives” have actively sabotaged anything the Dems and the President have proposed. If it is proposed by a Dem…NO. So the Dems are the ones who MUST try to bargin with the economic domestic terrorists whose sole concern is the destruction of this Presidency no matter how much it hurts the economy or the American people? THAT’S your idea of barganing?!!!!!
For Obama to say what he said sounds to my ears like what he considers the private sector is the top 10% and they are doing fine, it also says to me that everybody else simply is not on his radar.