The Leitmotif of the Obama Era: ‘Less Than Expected’
The above cartoon is by the great Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily.
From the summer of 2010.
It reflects, as a recent article at Reason notes, “42 Straight Months of Stupidly Optimistic Official Predictions About Economic Recovery.” Bringing us up to today’s job report which Bloomberg News — as is their wont – describes as “Less Than Expected” in their headline:
American employers added fewer workers to payrolls than forecast in June and the jobless rate stayed at 8.2 percent as the economic outlook dimmed.
The 80,000 gain in employment followed a 77,000 increase in May, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists projected a 100,000 rise, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Growth in private payrolls was the weakest in 10 months.
Stocks fell on concern hiring has shifted into a lower gear, restricting consumer spending and leaving the economy more vulnerable to a global slowdown. The figures underscore concern among some Federal Reserve policy makers that growth isn’t fast enough to lower unemployment stuck above 8 percent since February 2009.
The headline that Bloomberg uses today is “U.S. Payrolls in June Rise Less Than Expected.”
The headline that Bloomberg used on June 8th of last year was “U.S. Payrolls Grow at Slowest Pace in 9 Months.”
For that article, the “unexpectedly” came in the lede, not the headline, but it was there as well:
American employers added jobs at the slowest pace in nine months in June and the unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed to 9.2 percent, sending global stocks sliding on concern the world’s biggest economy is faltering.
Beyond the virulent case of amnesia that’s spread through newsrooms throughout America, there’s also the cognitive dissonance of defending a president who wants to have his hand in every facet of the economy in mid 20th century Soviet John Kenneth Galbraith-style, and yet must now be described by the MSM as concurrently too weak to do anything about the same economy he desires complete control over. This strain of Orwellian doublethink can be explained as the Obamamedia doing what it can to calm voters’ fears (and their own), because as Jonathan S. Tobin of Commentary wrote yesterday in anticipation of today’s grim employment report, “It’s Getting Late Early for Obama’s Economy:”
The numbers matter because they are the tangible measure of the success of failure of any administration in proving the country is in better shape than it was when they took over the big fancy offices in Washington after the last presidential election. If voters take these numbers seriously it’s because that along with personal experiences they help form the voters’ overall impression of the state of the economy. The key here is not so much the details of each report as it is the trajectory of the nation’s finances. Moreover, given the fact that we are just four months away from the November election, it’s that point in time when, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, politicians begin to understand that “it gets late early out there.” Once the electorate accepts the verdict that the economy is either on the decline or on the rise, a possible change in the fall (with the exception perhaps of a collapse on Wall Street such as occurred in September 2008) is unlikely.
Which is why, right on cue with today’s poor jobs report, the presidential palace guard in the MSM goes on the air and cranks out articles suggesting, as one Oba-booster at ABC does, that no modern president “can do much to change the situation.”
Barack Obama — or at least his speechwriters — once thought differently, as we’ll explore on the next page.
In 2004, the unemployment rate averaged out at 5.5 percent. In June of that election year, Obama, running for the US Senate that year (where he would would later stop in for a cup of coffee on the way to his now fateful presidential bid) attacked President Bush over his job record. As Drew at Ace of Spades’ blog writes, let’s compare how the two presidents stand up at identical points during their tenures in office:
How many jobs did the economy created in June of 2004? 112,000 (pdf). This was actually down from previous months. It’s actually impressive considering the unemployment rate was…5.6% and had been for much of that year (it’s harder to get big job growth when unemployment is relatively low).
Obama actually said that today’s awful job numbers are “a step in the right direction”.
So to recap…112,000 jobs and 5.6% unemployment was killing the middle class but 80,000 jobs (when there’s clearly a job shortage) and 8.2% unemployment is “a step in the right direction”.
Buzzfeed has the audio; the transcript of Obama’s speech reflects this classic “we can do better” moment:
America needs a strong, vibrant middle class. And until middle class families get their heads above water, we can’t declare victory.
The President attacks those who make this point as “pessimists.”
He apparently believes that this is the best we can do.
We believe that we can do better.
As the folks at Twitchy.com quip in response today, “5.6% unemployment was attacked as weak. What, pray tell, is 8.2% unemployment, then? Answer: ‘Shut up, racists.’”
Obama has had his chance to put his sclerotic early 20th century theories to the test, and the result was identical to the 1930s. Other than the ability to spend the taxpayers’ money like there’s no tomorrow (which Greece, Detroit, and several California towns can tell you is true — there is no tomorrow), the entire Obama administration’s performance has been “less than expected.” Except perhaps by those of us who weren’t expecting much all along.
Which means that for the nation to have any hope, it’s now time for a change.
In other words, “It doesn’t have to be this way,” at Mitt Romney said today in response to the president’s “less than expected” employment numbers.
Update: As James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute notes in a killer chart atop a Drudge-linked article today, in 2009, the Obama administration predicted that unemployment would be at 5.6 percent today as a result of his economic “stimulus” program, passed that year at the height of hopenchange, when Democrats controlled all branches of the Federal Government, and as Newsweek boasted at the time, “We Are All Socialists Now:”
More: If “unexpectedly” is the verbal tic that defines the media’s self-imposed amnesia, then cutting and pasting the phrase “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available” at the end of economic reports from the Obama White House’s Website every month since January is the administration’s equivalent.
The word “unexpectedly” promotes the idea that government economists are using the best information and economic technique which has always worked in the past. But, our present circumstance is so unusual and different that we can’t help but be surprised. Anyone would be surprised. Don’t blame us.
For a smile, read Brian Caplan on how government economists Toe the Party Line
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[edited] Jeff Frankel says, “In every case, the economic adviser managed to avoid saying something he did not believe to be true.” Fankel is damning appointees with faint praise. An independent thinker doesn’t merely “manage to avoid” lying.
=== ===
All governments are Keynesian, and just as wrong as Keynes was. Amazingly, the US and most countries use the following logic:
-> When it rains, many people use umbrellas:
-> So, if we make people use umbrellas, then it will rain.
Don’t believe me? Here is the exact logic of US government economists:
(1) We have measured GDP (Gross Domestic Product) at different times.
(2) During times of prosperity, GDP is high. (This makes sense. People are producing more useful stuff.)
(3) We can raise GDP (by accounting definition) by borrowing and taxing, then spending to build more stuff and paying people do work of any kind regardless of utility.
This was the stimulus package, building millions of houses, and ongoing bloat in the federal and state governments. Government spending increases GDP by definition of government.
(4) Wait a bit, prosperity is sure to come.
For example, the US has built thousands of sidewalks in the wrong locations as part of the stimulus. According to government accountants, this has all added to GDP. We are all waiting now for the prosperity that is sure to come. And the rain.
For example, Solyndra has gone bankrupt after consuming $535 million of tax money. Every bit of that is considered extra GDP. This was just as useful to our society as digging a $535 million ditch in the wrong place. Yet, that ditch has added to our accounting of GDP.
Government says we will face an economic slowdown if we lower federal spending. Yes, false GDP from government spending would go down. This is quite different from an actual economic slowdown. Scarce resources (including all of the engineers at Solyndra) are diverted to poor uses by government projects.
A reduction in government spending will allow those resources to be applied to projects which will mostly add value to our society, rather than use up resources to gain nothing. It doesn’t matter if false GDP disappears, it would improve our lives.
As they say, when you find yourself in a hole dug by government, the first thing is to stop digging.
Very good! They are like a five year old trying to run a household while the parents are away. Add to that the fact that they are trying to run the weather and also history all at the same time. Pathetic lunacy!
Add to that, “The economy was much worse than we expected….When we began to really look at it, the trillion bucks we hosed you for didn’t go nearly far enough to cover all our debts to the unions and other entities that we owe our jobs to.”
Honestly. Corruption has a face. Our government has always had it in some level of degree but right now, they have undertaken not only destroying the nation from within but trying to control the narrative. On the latter, they are doing a really crappy job. Their lies are uncovered almost the second they tell them.
Yet they persist. And they wonder why readership/viewership of their left-wing, national socialist trash is dragging in the mud. It’s clearly an irony they don’t grasp.
Socialism sucks. It has always sucked. It always will suck. Doesn’t matter who does it or when. The list of nations that have shackled their people is very long indeed. USSR, DDR, North Korea, China, Cuba, Venezuela, The entire European continent, etc etc.
Sadly, we have so many people here who, in their efforts to be elitist snobs, embrace socialism. Yet, in my mind, I have to imagine what would happen if say…a republican president dumped money into “green” companies that kept going belly-up, or if they forced a government takeover of GM and Chrysler.
What then?
Would they have cried “Unconstitutional”? I should think so. So the problem goes deeper than simply labeling someone a conservative or national socialist. It’s deeply rooted in anger, hatred and vengeance for grievances real or imagined. And there are a lot of angry people out there searching for a target.
read 2day that new disability claims totalled 84,000 (evidently 84,000 gave up hope of finding a job or continuing on unemployment) so a net loss of 4,000 jobs last month…unexpectedly
Yes, I’m sure that was unexpected as well. That percentage is way up! No where was that mentioned other than Fox.
It takes 150k per month just to keep up with population growth. Bottom line, Communism don’t work. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
I know it’s usually spelled “leitmotif”, but in this case “lessmotif” would be proper too.
You sure as hell can’t use the term “unexpected underachievement” when documenting ANY accomplishments of this pathetic dolt.
MANY, MANY, MANY, wrote tomes of prophesy of this recalcitrant slacker before his coronation.
And I’ve never accepted one red cent for my ability to tell the future.
But, here’s a link for donations for my 20/20 hindsight.
Thousands may lose Internet access when FBI shuts down servers By Brendan Sasso – 07/06/12
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/236431-thousands-may-lose-internet-as-fbi-shuts-down-servers
What we are seeing here is the inherent cognitive dissonance of statism on display. It’s usually hidden in think tanks, executive committees and the odd “Renaissance Weekend”. (To say nothing of quarterly schmoozefests at Davos.)
The reason that the word “unexpected” keeps cropping up is that they really did not anticipate this happening. They came in and, obedient to their dogmas, began applying all the tools of governance they had dreamed of having in their hands to the economy. To force it to behave the way their dogma said it should when those tools were applied “correctly”.
In their minds, the reason that it had never worked in the past was not that the dogma was wrong. It was that their forebears either (a) did not have enough money to apply to the project, (b) did not have everyone else “marching in step”, and/or (c) were sabotaged by nefarious conspiratorial elements. (Outside of “enlightened” circles, those elements are generally referred to as “the voters”.)
This time around, the Stars Were Aligned (supposedly), the Ducks Were All In A Row (theoretically), and Everybody Was Singing From The Same Page In The (Secular Progressive) Hymnbook (conceptually). And oh yes, Europe was on board, too, in fact leading the way.
It Could Not Fail.
But it did. And now comes the blaming.
Obama is blaming those “conspiratorial elements”, as is Ray LaHood, who wants to run America like Red China, where “only three people” make all the decisions. (What does he think we have with Obama, Pelosi, & Reid?)
The Democrats in general are blaming the Republicans, helped by the news media and academia. Because none of them wants to admit they were the ones helping put the Great plan into effect.
A few in the latter three groups are even blaming Obama, because somehow he Didn’t Go Far Enough. This is rather like saying that Captain Smith should have been going faster when he rammed the RMS Titanic into that iceberg.
(“Ring up Ahead Flank! It will surely crumble because our plan is Pristine!” Uhh, no, not actually.)
What exactly none of them want to do is to admit that they have done everything the dogma demands, and it didn’t work. Because that would mean the dogma is (gasp!) incorrect.
And not only all their dreams of total power, but their very emotional existence, is wrapped up in that dogma. To a degree seldom seen otherwise outside of a religious cult, like Heaven’s Gate or Aum Shinri Kyo. Or, for that matter, the People’s Temple of San Francisco, California and Jonestown, Guyana.
(Like all of the above, our “enlightened elite” believe that they are on the fast track to Absolute Power. And have no problem with the End of the World, as long as it happens on their terms.)
This is the reason Obama is sinking in the esteem of his supporters. They can either admit that their Perfect Model For Reality makes about as much sense as trying to put a Stairmaster together, according to the instructions for a rowing machine, while high on LSD- or they can engage in the time-dishonored custom of blaming the messenger.
And our recipients of revealed truth are famous for the way they reject Messiahs who don’t deliver the goods. As well as for their tendency to seek vengeance on those they regard as having betrayed them, even when those “betrayers” weren’t even aware that they were supposed to be on the team.
In the next year or so, expect both customary forms of diversion to be increasingly on display.
clear ether
eon
Oh its going to get ugly all right. The progressives will intensify their scorched earth tactic. It will start with the Zimmerman trail and the race baiting. Cities will burn when zimmerman will be found innocent. That’s what will get things really going.
“What exactly none of them want to do is to admit that they have done everything the dogma demands, and it didn’t work. Because that would mean the dogma is (gasp!) incorrect.”
You’re exactly right about this. The Left is never able to admit it is wrong, no matter how many times their dogma fails. It has failed in many countries over many decades and succeeded in none yet they keep telling themselves and the rest of the world that it will surely work this next time. If you ask them what they’ll do differently to keep it from being a disaster, they always ignore the question. To actually change any aspect of the plan is an admission that the plan isn’t already perfect and they can’t bring themselves to do that. This is true even if they acknowledge the tens of millions who died in the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, etc. etc. as they sometimes too. Truly, they are the living embodiment of the dictum that insanity is doing the same thing again and again yet expecting a different result.
But this is the only plan they’ve got and they can’t be bothered to figure out what’s wrong with it. Or, more likely, they know it can’t be fixed so they don’t even bother. They just stick to it and still have the audacity to be surprised when it doesn’t work – AGAIN.
What I can’t figure out is why the psychiatric profession doesn’t add Marxism to the DSM IV (the profession’s diagnostic guide) as a mental illness. Surely the pathology is pretty clear; I’ve just laid out the key elements. The prognosis is pretty clear too: unless the patient has a change in dogma, no progress toward sanity can be expected.
Henry;
The reason you will never see Marxism listed in any edition of DSM is that the overwhelming majority of the psychiatric profession are “progressive” true believers themselves.
Progressivism is, after all, all about “feelings” and “being kind to the Earth” and all the other warm, fuzzy things that psychologists and psychoanalysts find comforting.
Also, progressives as a rule are all in favor of drugs, which psychoanalysts find fascinating due to the way they alter consciousness. Most psychs think that most “mundanes” cling too closely to reality, and need to express themselves. This is why they are always ready to argue that a dangerously unstable type who likes to use sharp objects on people he doesn’t even know should be released as “no longer a threat to himself and others”. To them, he’s just “seeing the world through different eyes”, and it’s the rest of us who are at fault for not accommodating him. We should be “valuing the insights” of the unbalanced, not locking them up, according to the experts.
Finally, psychiatrists uniformly view themselves as perfectly sane. Ergo, anyone whose opinions are in any way different from their own is ipso facto suffering from mental problems. Therefore, if the psychiatrist believes in progressive dogmas, all non-believers are by definition insane.
When studying Abnormal and Applied Psychology in a criminal justice curriculum, it’s amazing what you can learn… about the licensed psychoanalysts who are, by law, required to teach the course for full accreditation.
It’s also an experience I’m glad I only had to go through once.
cheers
eon
The “fuzzy, touchy, feely” stuff is the velvet glove surrounding the iron fist. Never forget that the first three things these people want is power, power, power. That is followed by, naturally, money and prestige. They really, really, really feel good about themselves and their fellow travelers because they are so obviously well qualified to control the hoi poloi who are so in need of “guidance” and “inspiration.” Truly, it is a religious cult. They will gladly smile in your face while viciously plotting your demise.
….we are at fault for not accommodating him. That is exactly the point made by Ray LaHood’s insane diatribe. I paraphrase. Everything was going just swimmingly well according to our plan then after the 2010 midterms here came 50 or 60 Republicans and progress stopped. For Ray LaHood that was just an unbelievable event. “Progress stopped” yes that was we the people talking and he just can not fathom for one split second that the dogma is flawed. So 0bama, et al, proceed along doing whatever the dogma dictates and the debris field builds and builds. What the hale does it take for these people to acknowledge the failure.
For a case in point, peruse any recent Paul Krugman column.
“Change” also works well –
Record unemployment – Change
Destroying American businesses with lawlessness – Change
Violating the constitution in an effort to enforce serfdom – Change
Transforming the United States into a destitute third world s**thole – Change
The United States of Mexetina – Change your getting, 4 more years…
“In other words, “It doesn’t have to be this way,” at Mitt Romney said today in response to the president’s “less than expected” employment numbers.”
What bothers me most about the jobs report today is that the mainstream media is now treating this as if 8.2% unemployment is the new normal in America. They moan that “nobody” can “fix” the economy, or even that the job of the presidency is “too big for any one man.” What a load of buffalo chips. They said the exact same things as Jimmy Carter was going down the tubes. All we needed was a great optimist in chief who also believed in tough conservative principles, and we got that in Ronald Reagan. And guess what? We not only ended up with a great economy under Reagan, but we also managed to defeat the Soviet Union at the same time, all things that the whiners in the mainstream media just swore could not be done. Well, we did it then and we’ll do it again.
I was never one to quit on anything. Even if Romney isn’t the best conservative out there (and heaven knows he isn’t), he’s still a million times better than Obama. But the road ahead of us will be filled with obstacles between now and election day. Those far-left liberals and socialists in the White House right now want to hang on to power at any cost, making our job to unseat Obama just that much more difficult. And remember that right up until election day in 1980, the polls said that Carter and Reagan were neck-and-neck, giving a slight edge to Carter. We all saw how that turned out.
The Founding Fathers never gave up, even when all looked lost. Their will and determination saw them through the worst of times and they held on until they achieved final victory. We must do the same. Never give up, Never give in, and fight until you prevail. We will win. Count on it.
Exactly. Well said. Let’s roll.
No this is exactly what should be expected from a communist lawless inexperienced person trying to ruin a country, and it is showing, now what will you do about it go with the stoppage or get rid of the problem, you have but one choice and it is not more of this , it is a real change and you get to make real history by voting the worst president ever elected to office.
I know we have all had to listen to pundits tell us what they think we need to hear, nut in your mind do you think that we should put up with 4 more years of misery? I do not and I am well armed and legally carry every day since 1974 maybe you should as well!
This man in the oval office has pretty much declared war on most of us and I will not sit back and can and will defend my rights, as I am a simple ole country boy now nearing 60, with that said you can either vote for salvation from the mess that this man has made and will continue to make or get shed of him, it is your choice.
You know Andy Griffith died a couple of days ago in North Carolina, make him proud and live up to the ideals that he told Opie and deputy Barney in the longest running show ever in television history that is still airing to this day…there is wisdom to be gained from that show alone!
Latest Email from the Obama-Biden Campaign
In view of the facts Barack Hussein Obama hypocritically reneged on his pledge to accept public funding of his 2008 campaign after private donations came pouring in by the hundreds of millions and has now lied about being outspent in both that campaign as well as his successful 2004 run to represent Illinois in the United States Senate and, in general, tends to dissemble quite a bit, the following should be taken with a few grains of salt.
There’s no doubt much of the love, adulation, and money has dried up for Obama this time around as his idolators have come to realize his hopey-changey pitch of four years ago was huge on unwanted change but devoid of any real hope and that Mitt Romney has been raking in the cash lately. Still, the following verbatim email from my good buddy, Jim Messina, Campaign Manager for the president’s re-election, could very well be another crock but I thought I would share it anyway.
FROM Jim Messina, BarackObama.com info@barackobama.com 2:44 PM (2 hours ago)
“Romney and the Republicans announced yesterday that they brought in more than $100 million in June.
For context, that’s about what we raised in April and May combined.
We’re still tallying our own numbers, but this means their gap is getting wider, and if it continues at this pace, it could cost us the election.
If everyone who’s been waiting to give pitches in $3 or more today, we can start reversing this trend in just a few hours.
One hundred million is alarming enough, . . .”
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=26528.)
I get 4 or 5 of these a day also. I think the campaign is punking their constituents. And lying about their war chest to extract more donations. I’m hoping that the $3 dinners are over. That was embarrassing. A sitting President of the USA hawking $3 dinners.
I am impressed that Mr. Driscoll and so many others have the patience to keep track of the many and varied lies told by the idiot with fecal drool dripping from his chin. I certainly appreciate their efforts, and I think those efforts might lead to something, so long as the coprophiliacs on the left do not finally outnumber us absolutely.
And for how long do we have to listen to these economic geniuses come back and tell us that they were surprised by the results.
I may be conservative and listen to Rush, but when he talks about people making predictions that always wrong and surprised, then it isn’t news, it is the expected.
And if I were as wrong as these experts I would not be expecting to be hired, except in government, where there seems to be no accountability for quality of work product released.
Here is a prediction for you all: this president will not make it to his 43rd month in office. This thing is about to implode. At this point even the Democratic Party has a vested interest in stopping him if they want to win any dog-catcher election in the next 50 years.
I’ve been thinking the same thing. If 0bama loses, I hope the Democrat party handlers are supervising him closely between Nov12 & Jan13. That’s when he can do the most damage.
You should rather say: “Unexpectedly Less Than Expected.”
“5.6% unemployment (2004)was attacked as weak. What, pray tell, is 8.2% unemployment, then? Answer: ‘Shut up, racists.’”
Exactly.
There’s a reason “government” wasn’t intended to direct, manage and oversee “the economy”. Despite the best theoretical wet dreams of Krugman, Reich, Obama and a whole host of big spending socialist micro-managers, it doesn’t work.
For purposes of becoming America again, Obama’s incompetence is a feature not a bug
“But as citizens, we should be grateful. Given the administration’s extravagant ambitions, incompetence is its saving grace.”
Now if the NY Times, Wash Post, LA Times, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, etc, etc actually reported the news, rather than performing like trained seals pushing the party line, now that would be unexpected.
Sometimes, no matter how many bleedings and how many leeches the skilled physician applies to the patient, they just don’t get better.
Who knows why?
I seems to me that the Democrats latched on to a candidate who was an orator and who had virtually no record of past offenses because he never did anything. It is slowly coming out that Obama is a world class liar about a number of things. His life history, still mostly unknown, is a sham.
1. Did he really write his
autobiography?
2. How many characters in the book are combinations of many people?
3. What sort of a relationship did he have with his mother?
4. Why, when he was brought up by his white relatives, has he so much animus toward whites?
5. Why does he dislike this country so much?
6. Why has he continued to support those who obviously hate whites….especially Holder.
I could go on and on…..I have always wanted to know if he really attended Columbia amd what was his college record like. Who paid for his IVY league education? Michelle’s?
1. autobiography? It was a novel of composite and non-existing people and grievances. His grandfather’s run-in with the Brits never occured, his white girlfriend was a composite. His “experiences” were a fraud.
Americans have elected the first hologram president.
It’s funny to call someone who has yet to utter a coherent thought without reading the Teleprompter an “orator”.
Who paid for their Ivy education? The abominable US taxpayers, of course. They paid for his mother’s education too.