White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today came up with a novel way to spin the disappointing March employment numbers, which showed the economy created only 120,000 jobs, some 80,000 below expectations.
The figure is potentially disastrous for Obama since it shows hiring may be tapering down and the gains of previous months may be due to seasonal factors, not robust growth.
Here’s what Carney said on the way to Florida, where Obama will be creating jobs for his campaign organization by attending three fundraisers:
We talked a lot about jobs numbers on Friday, the fact that 120,000 jobs created, which made for the best quarter since 2006 in jobs created, came in under expectations, and there was a lot of discussion about whether or not that was a good number or a bad number. The fact of the matter is under President George W. Bush, the average monthly job creation figure was 67,000 jobs.
Carney might think twice about using Bush’s job record as a foil for Obama.
It’s true that Bush’s job creation results were mediocre. But Bush did have a job creation record. Under Obama, the economy has lost more than 1 million jobs. And at this point after such a nightmarish recession, it should be pumping out jobs in the hundreds of thousands per month to give us any chance of getting back where we were under Bush
What’s more the unemployment rate under Bush averaged 5.3 percent. The rate under Obama is currently over 8 percent, where it’s been for years and is likely to stay for the foreseeable future.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Dow Jones doesn’t believe a word of what the clowns are saying.
Stocks on Pace for Fifth Day of Declines
Shaking head. This one almost robbed me of the power of typing even.
Star, I mumble “WTF?” each time I see/read or hear anything about Carney. Aptly named, he is like a carney act at a country fair.
Good one Star
Do you think he had to put in some hours rehearsing this in front of the mirror so he could say it with a straight face?
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the dopiest of them all.
Rick, I don’t mumble “WTF” – it shoots out of my mouth at high velocity and with deafening sound.
Running against Bush. It’s all they’ve got.
Someone on Hannity said they should run against 41–after all, he caused Georgie…
Obama and the DEMS have to take the lion’s share of the blame for the policies leading up to the sub-prime crash. The aftermath was made infinitely worse by the biggest spending binge in the history of this country.
Ah we can go back to calling our leader, President OblameBush. I thought they had wore out that old fiddle with that same old song. Guess not if you are desperate.
How can Carney look in a mirror with a straiight face? I guess, the same way he lies with a straight face…they continue to think we’re stupid.
Unemployment by race/ethnicity
White 7.3%
Black or
African American 14.0%
Hispanic or Latino 10.3%
Asian 6.2%
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/demographics/
Obama calls folks who don’t fall for his BS flat earthers and Skippy is out there
blaming Bush. Who looks like a flat earther I think it’s Skippy and his boss.
Do Democrats check under their children’s’ beds and in their children’s closets for George Bush rather than the boogeyman?
LOL..probably.
“George Bush…wants to EAT YOUR BABIES!!” -Chris Rock during a standup act.
Apples and oranges. Comparing job creation of 2 Presidents under completely different employment circumstances is meaningless. Bush became President when the UE rate was something like 5% which is near full employment. The best you can do is create enough jobs to maintain that rate. It would have been impossible for Bush to create 200,000 jobs a month for 8 years unless you think a 2% unemployment rate is realistic.
A better comparison would be with Reagan who inherited high unemployment like Obama.
Those were my thoughts exactly. If the bucket is full it’s hard to put more water in it.
good analogy
Yeah, yeah, Bush’s fault, not fair, war against everything, playing fields, raise taxes, rich bad, poor bad, White bad, Repubs bad, blah, blah, blah.
I wonder how much sleep Jay-Jay loses trying to come up with enough inane crap to make The O Team look good. This is truly pathetic. I think his crystal ball is cracked.
Same old, same old.
Let’s not take any responsibility but blame it on Bush.
Sad.
KCUF that little SSA-HOLE…
Nobody’s buyin’ HIS bullsh!t nor the bullsh!t being pumped out by his boss, the GRAND BOZO…
Congrats, democrats…
YOU KCUF-ING IDIOTS DROPPED THIS PUNK AROUND OUR NECKS…
It defies logic, but there are those who will believe him. They like the kool aid so they choose to hear his words.
With Santorum suspending his campaign it’s time for the ABO crowd to unite and come up with an unbeatable offense.
Someone needs to create a video montage of all the “blame Bush”statements,with all the statistics of hope much worse things are since these idiots started running the asylum.
Is Carney married? I hope at least his wife tells him how stupid he sounds.
Carney his married to Claire Shipman (ABC/CNN resume) – “a lid for every pot” and “crackpot”.
I almost expect to hear “I know you are but what am I?”
PeeWee!
Can’t believe our country is being run by a bunch of 10-year-olds…immature 10-year-olds at that!
The only PeeWee reference that comes to mind these days is the quite fitting…JAMBI !!!!
Amazingly Bush himself was in NY saying higher taxes meant less economic growth…uh. yeah… He was almost a welcome sight.
I saw a humor-rumor that Keith Olbermann was going to replace Jay. Now I almost wish it were true.
OMG that would be so much fun!
Every news briefing reminds me of a scene in ” Young Frankenstein ”
Igor- “It could be worse”. Dr.- “How?”. Igor- “It could be raining”
Sudden downburst.
Four years later and Obama is still running against George W. Bush. The problem with that on the economy is that the economy was great under Bush for 7 1/2 years, the economy under Obama has not been good for any month he has been in office. No real executive makes excuses or blames the mystical fates or others, the reality is they perform or they are gone. Obama does not understand HE is the employee of the American people and not the community agitator he has experience with. He has no leadership qualities and the more they talk the more obvious it is even to the dumbest of the electorate.
It just amazes me that in the 3 plus years in office they haven’t accidentally stumbled upon someone in the administration who has a clue. You’d think the odds were that someone would do something right just once, just by accident.
Under Pres. Bush people had a job who wanted a job. We weren’t looking for large job creation numbers. We are now . . . Obama is not delivering, but that, of course, is not a big surprise.