'Jobs Report? What Jobs Report? Hey Look, Gay Marriage!'

Walter Russell Mead looks at the dismal March jobs report and responds:

It appears that, despite all the comforting words from the administration that the “smart tax hikes” and brilliant Obamacare plans are creating the most fabulous business environment since the invention of fire, actual businessmen are still hesitant to invest actual money in the American economy.

We are, however, thrilled that we don’t have a Republican in the White House, because if we did, the press would be incessantly yammering about this bad news until we were all sick of it. As it is, they are likely to say as little as possible about what appears to be a massive failure of economic policy and go back to covering the really important issues, like gay marriage.

If a Republican president got very busy on social issues at a time of economic stagnation and disappointment, there would be earnest hand-wringing of the “What’s Wrong with Kansas” variety about how American rubes were being diverted from their true economic interests by the skillful manipulation of emotionally charged social issues and identity politics. This would be taken as a sign of the cynicism of the ruling party and the clueless credulity of the hypnotized voters.

Or as the Washington Examiner recently noted, “The culture war is all Obama has left.”