Hmmmmm......."Say, just how “fine” is the private sector doing, anyway?"
Even if we assign the entirety of the recession to George Bush, as Obama argues, job growth in the private sector in this recovery amounts to only 86,300 jobs per month — not even enough to keep up with population growth, which requires roughly 125,000-150,000 new jobs per month to just tread water. Obama’s spurious claim of 4.267 million jobs in 27 months as being net for his economic policies still amounts to just 158,000 per month, barely the status quo … at the bottom of the trough.
That’s not “fine” at all. In fact, it’s pretty darned lousy, and the precipitous drop in civilian population participation rates make that clear.The entire article is worth the read, so please do so. But it's clear that Obama's statement that "The private sector is doing just fine" is, at best, an assertion. At worst, it's a lie.
As for the headline......as Jim Geraghty at National Review notes:
The Obama campaign asked, “How can McCain fix our economy if he doesn’t know it’s broken?” That question sure sounds relevant to the president today.UPDATE I: Oops! Obama walks back his "The private sector is doing just fine" statement. If you want to know why, ask Instapundit. Or Ed Driscoll.
UPDATE II: This is at the Instapundit link, but it deserves dedicated bandwidth. Senator Corker goes at Obama "hammer-and-tongs". Pass it on.
UPDATE III: And now, over to Standard & Poor, who awards Obama one smack to the back of the head for his "Joe Biden moment": Obama says private sector 'doing fine,' then Standard & Poor keeps downgrade, negative outlook.
