Americans are now beginning to question Obama's authoritative approach to job creation. At this point last year the President promised one thing to America: "Jobs." The RNC feels the President should start being graded by how well he has kept that promise, and has given him a title that reflects the number of jobs he's created. Introducing, "President ZERO!!!"
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/president-zero_592139.html
3 comments:
Although the reports show a 0% increase in jobs for August 2011, let's put this in perspective:
When unemployment peaked after the recession, it was at 10.1%. It now stands at 9.1%.
A year ago, when Obama is said to have promised jobs. it was at 9.6%. Again, it now stands at 9.1%
While the stagnent month of August is perhaps not the best sign for a recovering economy, one can be comforted that the trend over the last 2 years has been a declining unemployment rate and given the severity of the all to recent great recession, a trend of declining unemployment is something we can be thankful for even if it is not at the level we'd like.
I will agree it's disappointing to not have the unemployment rate drop every month, but this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Stay tuned for Obama's speech later this week on this very issue.
I'm looking forward to what he has to say too. With an approval rate hitting record lows, it seems both sides of the isle are disappointed that we spend (billions/millions)money on bailouts, and stimulus plans and don't have much 'change' to show for it.
First, the notion of "change" as a promise made false by the lack of immediate results is to misrepresent what Obama meant when he campaigned under that slogan.
To quote the president on the 2008 campaign trail:
"let me remind you tonight that change will not be easy. That change will take time. There will be setbacks, and false starts, and sometimes we will make mistakes. But as hard as it may seem, we cannot lose hope."
For the abstract concept that it is, Obama's change is not rooted in the instant gratification in a one or two presidential terms many have come to measure it by. Rather it is the hope that decisions made now will benefit our nation's standing in history, that our choices will change our collective outcomes for the better. This is what he meant from the beginning.
That said, the success of Obama's Recovery Act should not be measured in just the slow rate of recovery but also in the way the free fall of the recession was stopped and the ways in which a foundation has been laid to rebuild an economy with less of a risk from the dangers that brought it crashing down.
When some continue to criticize, I fall back to ask what the alternative is. For a President facing his lowest ever approval ratings, what is the assumedly preferred course of action? Where is the opposition's plan to helping rebuild the economy and reducing unemployment in this country? I say this not to make the argument that the Recovery Act was a good idea because it was the only idea but to point out the hollow tone to much of the criticism leveled at Obama.
To again quote in expressing the sentiments of the President in his last State of the Union Address:
"let me be the first to say that anything can be improved. If you have ideas about how to improve this law..., I am eager to work with you."
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