WASHINGTON POST: Economic news is bad for Obama’s reelection bid. “Any notion that President Obama’s reelection campaign was gaining momentum was shaken this week by a string of worrisome economic reports showing weakness in the job market and new lows for housing prices.” Ya think?
UPDATE: Reader John Kluge writes:
You missed the living example of Heinlein in the WAPO story about the economy and Obama you linked to. The Post admits the economy is terrible and that is bad for Obama. But says that it is just bad luck.
“Behind the economic distress is a series of unexpected events, including the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the European debt crisis and rising gasoline prices. As a result of the unemployment rate turning back up and the housing market reaching new lows since the slump began in 2006, numerous economists have reduced their expectations for economic growth this year.”
I can’t help but think of the famous Heinlein quote.
“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded- here and there, now and then- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.This is known as ‘bad luck.’.”
UPDATE: Joy McAnn isn’t buying the White House’s excuses, emailing:
Bush also inherited a recession, and on his watch the economy absorbed the aftermath of 9/11, which was a much more direct hit on the U.S. economy than the disaster in Japan.
And if there were anyone in the White House protesting that “rising gas prices” are a hurdle they’ve had to overcome, it would be a classic textbook example of chutzpah, since so much of what they’ve done has encouraged gas prices to go up.
Well, yes. And there’s this: “You can be sure that if a Republican were in the White House and unemployment was at 9.1%, there wouldn’t be any ‘Don’t blame the president’ headlines in the newspapers.”