Did Obama inherit a mess?

AP Panic Is Evident Over Obama's 'Private Sector Is Just Fine' Comment, Non-Walkback

AP Panic Is Evident Over Obama's 'Private Sector Is Just Fine' Comment, Non-Walkback http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2012/06/08/ap-panic-evident-over-obamas-private-sector-just-fine-comment-non-walkba http://newsbusters.org/  Sat, 09 Jun 2012 03:47:49 GMT  

Today at a press conference, President Barack Obama said that "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 ..."

Later, in a cleanup attempt, in what the press is claiming is a walkback, Obama really didn't walk it back: "Listen, it is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. That's the reason I had the press conference. ... what I've been saying consistently over the last year, we've actually seen some good momentum in the private sector. We've seen 4.3 million jobs created -- 800,000 this year alone -- record corporate profits. And so that has not been the biggest drag on the economy." He never pulled back from saying that "the private sector is doing fine." The abject panic at the Associated Press is evident in tonight's report by Ken Thomas and Philip Elliott (HT to a NewsBusters tipster; bolds and numbered tags are mine):

---

Obama gets grief for saying private sector 'fine'

President Barack Obama made Mitt Romney's day by declaring "the private sector is doing fine" and opening himself to the accusation that he - not the rich Republican [1] - is the one who is out of touch with reality. Obama quickly clarified his remark Friday but Republicans already had their teeth in it [2] and weren't letting go.

"Is he really that out of touch?" GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney asked as Obama's initial comments ricocheted through the presidential campaign.

Seeking to head off any damage, Obama backpedaled and declared it is "absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine." [3] While there had been some "good momentum" in the private sector, Obama said, public sector growth lagged behind, making it imperative that Congress act on his proposals to hire more teachers and first-responders.

Obama's original six-word sentence, even if taken out of context, amounted to an unforced political error. The economy is the single biggest issue on voters' minds and a weak spot for him, given the nation's stubbornly high 8.2 percent unemployment rate.

Nearly every day, Obama finds himself having to defend his stewardship of an economy that has struggled to recover from the 2008 economic downturn and pleading with voters to stick with him because, he says, Romney would pursue policies that led to the recession.

But on Friday, Obama may have given his rival an opening. [4]

... Obama's comments at a White House news conference were reminiscent of Republican nominee John McCain's assertion in mid-September 2008 that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong," [5] just as the U.S. economy was melting down. Candidate Obama seized on those comments then. Now, as president, he was getting grief along similar lines.

... But while "doing fine" is in the eye of the beholder, Obama was correct that the job picture in the private sector is brighter than in the public sector. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, private companies have added 3.1 million jobs. [6]

Notes (in how Thomas and Elliott might have discussed these matters among themselves):

[1] -- "Geez, we have to get something in here really quick about the fact that Romney is rich, even though it's totally irrelevant to our report."

[2] -- "We need a wild, out-of-control animal reference to make Republicans look like the unreasonable meanies."

[3] -- "We know this really isn't a backpedal, because he didn't admit that the private sector isn't fine, but we're going to pretend it is anyway. Those dummy subscribing publishers and broadcasters who use our content won't know any better."

[4] -- "Even though we know it's something Mitt Romney and Republicans will be driving a Mack Truck through for the next five months, let's just call it an 'opening.'"

[5] -- "We know that McCain was only talking about the economy's capabilities as opposed to where it actually stood, but we pounced on it when we had the chance. So let's use it now, even though Obama's out of touch flub is obviously different, as it clearly refers to his take on the private sector's current actual health."

[6] -- "Let's be sure not to tell anyone that 737,000 of those jobs are with temporary help services, that the number of part-time employees is at an all-time high of 28 million, that full-time employment is down by 1.6 million since Obama took office (and only up by 1.5 million since the recession ended almost three years ago), or that non-postal federal employment is up by over 140,000 since January 2009. And whatever we do, we can't say that states like Wisconsin which have addressed public sector employment costs have largely avoided public employee layoffs, while states like Ohio which tried but failed to rein in costs due to union activism are seeing public-sector layoffs all over the state."

Obama had a chance to simply say he was wrong, and didn't. It's too late now; for reasons far beyond what is detailed here, this seems destined to haunt him all the way until Election Day. The way Thomas and Elliott pathetically and desperately tried to construct their defenses at the Administration's Press clearly demonstrate that.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.

Liberalism is terminally ill

Liberalism is terminally ill http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/liberalism-is-terminally-ill/ http://www.wnd.com  Fri, 08 Jun 2012 23:37:41 GMT  

It’s been a pitiful sight – a sad week for progressives and “Big Union” Democrat-shilling thugs. In the wake of Tuesday night’s devastating recall smackdown in Wisconsin, tens of thousands of “Occupy” hippies across the nation have simply been too depressed to get stoned and not look for work.

On Wednesday the White House released President Obama’s detailed itinerary through October:

1. Worry

2. Lie

3. Obfuscate

4. Golf

5. Fundraise

6. Worry

Indeed, the president has much to worry about. No honest politico can deny that liberals’ Wisconsin debacle likely represents a shadow of things to come – a precursor to November.

Recall DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz’s admission on CNN. In a rare moment of candor, she said Wisconsin was a “dry run” – a “test run” for the 2012 election. (A bit like the Titanic’s test run, as it turns out.)

Tuesday night Sarah Palin took to Fox News where she said that Scott Walker’s humiliating defeat of Tom Barrett, the DNC and heretofore-excessively-coddled-labor-union-leaders spells big trouble for little Barry. “Obama’s goose is cooked,” she said. “It’s the union leaders who need to be recalled.”

Does this mean the Democratic Party is not long for the world? That our two-party system is on its way out?

Of course not.

As long as there are voters who really, really want lots of free stuff from other people, there will be Democrats and Democratic politicians.

Still, what it does mean is that beyond the short-term political reality that Wisconsin presents a bleak forecast for Democrats in 2012 – liberalism itself (or “progressivism,” as the left euphemistically prefers) is terminally ill.

On Tuesday night, blogger David Burge of the Iowa Hawk blog “tweeted: “The principal delusion of liberals is that liberalism is popular. The principal delusion of conservatives is that liberalism is popular.”

Simple, yet profound.

Liberals should be afraid. They should be very afraid. The jig is up. Polls consistently show that Americans identify as conservative over liberal by a two-to-one margin. Wisconsin was an earthshaking manifestation of this reality.

But it was only a tremor.

There’s a distinct probability a massive quake awaits liberals when, later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court releases its decision on Obamacare. If this, both Obama’s and Democrats’ signature accomplishment, goes down, so too do the obtusely utopian, neo-Marxist dreams of the Democratic Party’s progressive base.

And in November? The tsunami.

Indeed, the political tectonic plates are shifting. Unsurprisingly, so-called “progressives” pretend it ain’t so.

Problem is, so do conservatives.

Stop it, both of you!

This is about worldview. This is about an epic clash between two irreconcilable, diametrically opposed socio-political philosophies. It’s a zero-sum game. Somebody wins and somebody loses.

On the one hand, we have secular-socialism, a cultural and political philosophy embraced by labor unions, Barack Obama, the base of the Democratic Party, the mainstream media and many of those controlling the reigns of our elitist institutions. It is “progressivism.”

This is a philosophy that, throughout history, has proven to be a serial failure. One need only look to Europe for the latest example. This secularist worldview is based loosely on the unattainable, redistributionist ramblings of Karl Marx, the father of communism.

It hates Christianity. It hates constitutionalism. It hates the precepts of individual liberty and responsibility codified throughout our nation’s founding documents. It embraces moral relativism and says there are no clear lines of demarcation between right and wrong.

It says that government is God and that as government giveth, government taketh away.

In sum: It’s garbage.

On the other hand we have the Judeo-Christian worldview. This is the socio-political philosophy embraced by our Founding Fathers. The historical record is unequivocal. It was within this framework that our U.S. Constitution was created. It is conservatism.

It says that we are endowed by our “Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

It embraces the virtues of fiscal responsibility, individual liberty and personal charity. It says there is black and white – right and wrong. It strives for less government and more freedom.

It acknowledges that there is a sovereign God – to whom we are all accountable – including both government and those whom “we the people” place in government.

It holds that as God giveth, God taketh away, and that you lying, cheating, ungodly snakes in Washington, D.C., better just take a step back and quick.

In sum: It is truth.

On Tuesday night, as the election returns came in and it became clear that Scott Walker was landsliding liberals and their union thugocracy, some progressive nut broke down, sobbing on camera and cried: “Democracy died tonight!”

Progressives, get this straight: On Tuesday night democracy didn’t die. Democracy was fulfilled in a powerful and transformative way.

And it’s only the beginning.

Liberals went to Wisconsin for a recall vote and a revolution broke out. We the people have spoken. Tea party? Yes. “Occupy”? Not so much.

Christian apologist C.S. Lewis wrote, “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

On Tuesday America hit Wisconsin and did an about-turn.