THE JOBS REPORT knocked Obamacare out of the conversation, rescuing Mitt Romney from himself. Unemployment remains at 8.2%, with 80,000 jobs created in June.
What’s even more interesting is that Politico went out of their way to post Ralph Nader’s post from July 5th, delighting in their chosen headline, “Ralph Nader: ‘Cowering’ Democrats face defeat.” It was obviously created to get traffic, a constant of big media sites in the hot, slow summer season, in the hopes of keeping revenue from crashing. I’ve never been a fan of Mr. Nader, minus what he’s done on product and automobile safety, but considering he basically writes what I’ve been writing for years I did find the scathing criticism amusing.
The Democrats should be landsliding the worst Republican Party in history. Talk about extremists. There are virtually no moderate or liberal Republicans left in Congress after being driven out by their own party hard-liners. So this Republican Party, united over their extremism, should be very easy to challenge.
[..] There are plenty of bright-line issues for the Democrats. Get tough on Wall Street and corporate crime, protect pensions, end the wars, tax the corporate and wealthy tax-escapees, launch community-based public works programs, provide full Medicare for all, expand health and safety programs, to name a few.
As for the economy, Dean Baker analyzes and highlights what few other do:
It continues to be striking that a disproportionate share of the jobs being created are going to men. This is not due to the comeback of manufacturing and construction. Since December of 2009, manufacturing has added just 496,000 and construction has lost 145,000 jobs. The real story is that men have gotten a hugely disproportionate share of the jobs in industries with more of a gender balance.
For example, in retail since December of 2009, men have gotten 474,000 jobs while women have lost 49,000. Men have gotten 190,000 of the 192,000 jobs created in transportation. In finance they have seen an increase in employment of 123,000 while the number of jobs for women fell by 65,000. It is too early to know if this trend will continue, but the disproportionate growth of jobs for men in these and other areas over the last two and a half years is striking.
[..] Overall, this cannot be seen as a good report. Still, if construction employment had grown in line with spending, health care had been in line with its usual pattern, and there had not been anomalous drops in jobs in educational services (9,600) and transit and ground transportation (7,400), the jobs number would have been close to 150,000. It is still likely that the second half of the year will see job growth in this neighborhood.
Beyond the economy, the vice presidential sweepstakes remains a hot topic among Republicans. Gov. Chris Christie made another spectacle of himself, further removing any possibility he’ll be on Team Romney. Talk about a short fuse. Bill Kristol speculates it could be Condoleezza Rice, even though she said emphatically “no” in an interview with Charlie Rose, which I spotlighted earlier. Just yesterday, Ann Romney said there was indeed a woman being considered, with many thinking it’s Sen. Kelly Ayotte. I’m not budging. Liz Cheney remains the only woman who could be the pitbull required of a running mate, while also soothing the neoconservative beasts. But really, who cares? Can anyone make Mitt Romney exciting?
Looking to next week, Karl Rove is releasing the Crossroads GPS Kraken in a $25 million ad buy in nine battleground states. And Mrs. Romney has the nerve to say Team Obama’s going to “kill Romney.”
As Paul Krugman has said many times, during most recessions the government pumps money into federal and state governments with the express intent of keeping people on the job and spending money. As we all know, Mr. Obama and congress have reversed this time tested cure for a weak economy. If all those teachers were still on the job they would be contributing to the recovery right now; the same goes for all those people who worked in thousands of other state, local and federal offices who are now home watching daytime television. This may be Obama’s biggest failure, the pointless destruction of good, high paying jobs with decent medical insurance. This alone makes his speech in Ohio even more revolting; he could have done so much and in the end, did so little.
How did President Obama destroy these jobs? Most of the job losses that are occurring right now iare in the public sector, and the Republicans in Congress has blocked any attempt to enact a federal stimulus bill to provide state and local governments with the necessary funding for these postions.
I’m getting really tired of listening to people constantly criticize Obama, without offering any acknowledgment regarding the present political impasse in which he finds himself in Washington. Has he made some mistakes? Most certainly, he has.
But as voters, we deserve our share of the blame, as well. Because of our own impatience and ignorance in the face of the worst economic depression since the 1930s, we threw a collective temper tantrum at the ballot box two years ago that swept a bunch of corporatist partisan hacks and tea party morons into important gubernatorial and congressional offices, such as John Kasich, Scott Walker, Rand Paul, William Joseph “Joe” Walsh and Allen West.
The result has been partisan gridlock, and you know what? We got exactly what we asked for. And honestly, who’s fault is it that we didn’t bother to educate ourselves, in order to know enough to realize what it was that we were asking for?
So, there’s more than enough blame to go around here, starting with the man or woman we see first thing each morning in the mirror.
Donald from Hawaii ….Good Post
I learned during the 2010 elections voters didn’t care to listen to reason. All they wanted was to hurt Obama make him pay for breaking there hearts…lol
So, like a spurned lover they welcomed with open arms a bunch of lunatics into congress…that have done nothing to help create jobs for over two years.
Yet, you still have idiots posting on the web or going on TV crying about how KING OBAMA has let them down on the jobs front. They refuse to even mention the Republican controlled house in congress… that they help vote in that has done the real damage to our economy. Its always only Obama fault….he never shares the blame.
Hell, do we even have a congress anymore…the way some in the media and online talk Obama controls the wind, moon, sun and stars. Though I will not be voting for Obama or that freak Romney…I will say this, that Obama is the better choice…The End
We would not even be having this discussion if Obama had used his power coming into office to fix the job situation. He chose to punt and was more concerned with playing kissy foot and chasing after the GOP for votes than he was anything else. Anyway, Obama has a lot of the blame in this situation because the buck stops with him.
Ga6thDem ….you seriously, expected him to fix eight years of damage by George Bush to our economy in three years?
Obama was a freshmen senator, wet behind the ears and the media along with rabid progressive fans…pushed aside the more experienced Hillary Clinton…for Obama…now they are upset because the novice Obama is acting like a well…novice. Like I mention earlier, I blame the voters more so who supported and put these people into office.
When Americans start demanding better choices…we will have a stronger nation. Until then the 2012 election year comes down to Obama and the human robot Romney. I will be sitting this one out, until I find a much better candidate, then the ones we have now.
Obama ensured that there would be no more stimulus when he said that the first stimulus would be enough. Not only was the first stimulus not enough, it was obviously well short of what was needed.
The Democrats in Congress had control of the House and Senate in 2008. They continued to blame their problems on Republicans, when the truth was that they couldn’t agree among themselves what they should do. There have been at least forty Democratic Senators in the Senate since at least 1960. Yet only Republicans seem to be able to stop things from happening that they don’t want. Why is that, do you suppose? Is it because the GOP has magical suiperpowers?
The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for two terms, yet they did nothing but what the Republicans would have done in their place. They still have control of the Senate. If they wanted, they could make sure that nothing Republicans wanted get in bills, including earmarks. They don’t, because it’s not in their interests to do that.
I’m tired of people who drop by here and make excuses for that.
So, the solution to all these problems with Dems in congress and Obama…was to vote in tea bagging lunatics?!
Sure the Dems had problems…but compared to the way Republicans have been screwing up things in congress…it appears they made a very bad decision. And time they own up to put these freaks into office.
When you don’t take care of your base, your base won’t take care of you. That’s the lesson there.
As for the relative merits of the two parties, what it comes down to is that the Republicans are honest about what they’re going to do, where the Democrats say they’ll do one thing, but then actually do what the Republicans will do.
I’ve stated quite explicitly, on numerous occasions, what my philosophy is. It is that we should elect progressives where possible, and not support or vote for people who aren’t. Thirty years of voting for the lesser evil has gotten us where we are now, and as long as we continue to do it, things will continue to get worse.
Fangio:
You said. ‘As Paul Krugman has said many times, during most recessions the government pumps money into federal and state governments with the express intent of keeping people on the job and spending money’.
What you said shows how the Progressive Left and the right wing GOP are so ill-informed about what the stimulus bill actually contained tht you have embarrassed yourself. Obviously you never read the stimulus bill and don’t have a clue as to what the bill actually contained.
Krugman is right the stimulus bill should have been at least twice as large as the 700 billion dollars in the bill that was passed. The stimulus bill that was passed stretched to the limit of what was possible not what was desireable.
Less than 25% of the bill was earmarked towards ‘shovel ready’ infrastructure projects and increased federal spending on education, the NIH and other worthy job creating projects.
40% of the Stimulus Bill was tax cuts for people earning less than 105K a year and tax cuts for small business to stimulate demand.
A third of the stimulus bill was emergency cash payments to the states intended to close the budget deficits caused by the Bush recession. These emergency cash payments to the states were meant as a temporary measure giving the states a year to get their fiscal house in order and to avoid the massive layoffs of public sector workers for one year. Texas, for example,received 6 billion dollars in direct emergency cash payments used to balance their fiscal 2010 budget. My own state of Oklahoma received 600 million dollars in emergency cash payments that enabled the state to cover the 2010 budget deficit without having to layoff thousands of state and local public sector layoffs.
Next time, before embarrasing your self with these kind of ill informed comments, just read the damn bill!.
And Mrs. Romney has the nerve to say Team Obama’s going to “kill Romney.”
Wherever would she get that idea?
In a move that will make some Democrats shudder, Obama’s high command has even studied President Bush’s 2004 takedown of Sen. John F. Kerry, a senior campaign adviser told POLITICO, for clues on how a president with middling approval ratings can defeat a challenger.
“Unless things change and Obama can run on accomplishments, he will have to kill Romney,” said a prominent Democratic strategist aligned with the White House.
PWT….Republicans have been trying to kill Obama presidency since he took office. So, for Mrs. Romney to cry over poor Mittens getting called out on his disgusting job as a former CEO…is a waste of time.
Also, where was her voice in the Republican Primary…when other Repubs were trying to “Kill the Mister”…The woman reminds me of Sarah Palin, silent on republican shenanigans but never quiet on Obama.
Try to set your partisanship aside and imagine if a Prominent Republican Strategist associated with the Romney campaign said that they needed to “kill Obama.” Now tell me you’d say that was “no big deal.”
jjamele…..Partisanship….LOL
I am an ” Independent”…and refuse to even vote in 2012. Because both choices being offered does not support the platform I am looking for… however, I will repeat REPUBLICANS along with that shit head RUSH and FOX have been trying to kill Obama since the day he was sworn into office.
So, for Mrs. Romney to whine about her poor Mittens being picked on by the big bad team Obama…is pathetic and does her no favors. She is being fake…Newt, Santorum and Ted Kennedy used the same strategy that Obama has taken up in fighting Romney.
Now now…trying to be reasonable or logical will only get you scorn and invective from both sides round these parts.
How would you know, Mr. “Republiklan Teabagger I Don’t Have Anything Intelligent to Add So I’ll just end with BWAAAAHHAAAAHAHHHAAAAA ” Semi-Literate Buzzword Machine?
I’m not terribly excited about this. What the Obama re-elect memo apparently meant was that they needed to smear Romney, which they have set about doing. This seems entirely logical since, as both articles pointed out, there’s not much for Obama to brag about having accomplished in his first term, assuming you’re not gay or in need of birth control. I really didn’t expect anything else.
Cujo359 ….Are ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden…you know something minor like that…LOL
That Obama is so useless George Bush or any republican could have pulled that off etc…
I wish people will just be honest and admit, they simple dislike Obama. Half the country loathes the guy and the other half hates the man. Coming election day Obama team better pray his admires come out strong…are money bags Mitt Romney will win.
He sent a hit squad halfway around the world to kill someone who hadn’t been doing any real terrorism in a long time. This means just about squat, beyond some emotional satisfaction some of his victims might feel. OTOH, the security state and civil liberties violations Obama has perpetuated will remain with us for decades. Getting us more deeply involved in one pointless war, and not ending the other any sooner than was required by the treaty Bush signed hasn’t helped that situation, either. Our policies just since Obama has taken office have probably spawned dozens of potential bin Ladens.
The man is a liar and has screwed up at nearly everything we’ve needed him to do. That’s why I don’t like him. Maybe if you could absorb that thought into your allegedly independent mind you’ll understand that you have cause and effect reversed.
Well said. He’s also ordered the murder of American citizens abroad- but it’s in the name of fighting terrorism, so that’s ok. He’s also ordered drone attacks on villages which have killed countless thousands of innocents- but it’s in the name of fighting terrorism, so it’s ok. “Progressives” on the radio and television crow about Obama The Great Terrorist Killer all the time, and it makes me ill to think how far we’ve fallen.
I have not seen Fox News so happy in along time, they are running with the jobs report. There is much blame to go around thats for sure. But the buck stops with President Obama, fair or not fair he is the President. I my own opinion, who ever wins in November will have a rough time getting the economy back on track. I think were proberly going to get a split government again.
Everyday is bad news for Obama at FOX….so they are always happy.
This -kill Romney- -Ensure Obama is a one term president- is just playground mouthing off crap. Isn’t that simply just politics? The people in power want to stay in power, the people out of power want the power.
guyski-Agreed.
Gee, I wonder how many people have actually died, either as a direct or an indirect result of all the jobs Romney “killed”? Ann needs to get off her “high dressage horse” and get real. Hyperbole abounds in elections….
Funny how we seem to be more worked up about a figurative “killings” than real ones, isn’t it?
Yup. But we’re talking about the .0001% here. What’s not to get worked up about?
As far as the economy goes, I expect unemployment will remain above 7% on a near permanent basis. 7 is the new 4. As far as the gender distribution of higher paying professional jobs go, I have doubled my workforce in this category since 2008. I see 3 male resumes for every 1 female resume. Making money leaves no time for discrimination on my part.
As far as politics go, I believe we can safely alter the old saw, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, become politicians. Romney “succeeded” because Bill Bain put him in the right place at the right time. Obama “succeeded” because the Democratic party put him in the right place at the right time. Neither hold a candle to the abilities of self-made individuals. Neither have the right stuff to rectify what ails the US economy, which is the ability to get things done regardless of whatever obstacles exist…..you find a way.
Once again the Beltway pundits got it all wrong. The Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare and the jobs report released on Friday were perceived as wins for Romney and Obama’s approval ratings and matchups vs Romney would plummet. In the first poll released by Rasmussen after the release of the jobs reportObmaa’s approval rating hit 50% for the first time in months. Rasmussen’s 2 point lead over Obama disappeared and Rasmussen reportedthe Obama vs Romney race was now tied.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_romney_vs_obama-1171.html
Last month a poor jobs report and the Obama campaign was excoriated by Democratic Leadership council members whos camapigns were largely funded by Wall Street venture capitalists including Bill Clinton, Harold Ford jr, and Cory Booker who was ‘nauseated’ by the Obama negative Bain Capital ads were supposed to reflect poorly on Obama’s approval ratings. Never happened, Obama’d approval ratings went up and his matchups vs Romney in the rust belt battleground states, where the Obama campaign flooded the airwaves with Bain Capital ads found Obama’s lead over Romney expanding in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. with Ohio and Pennsylvania moving from tossup to leans Obama..
Why didn’t you include Obama’s name in your list of “Wall Street venture capitalists?”
Oh wait, I know why- because Obama, Wall Street’s best friend, is currently and cynically running against Wall Street for a few more months.
But as you’ve demonstrated many times in the past, all you care about is the numbers. Sorry to interrupt, carry on with your ridiculous pom-pom waving.