(The following is cross-posted from an entry on my blog, written by my friend Ethan Ris):
Remember those measly 1,000 jobs that the Bush-tax-cut-fueled economy generated nationwide in December 2003? Well, get a load of this excerpt from Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri's State of the State address last week:
"Our job growth for the year was actually positive, 800 jobs ....while the nation as a whole and the New England region actually lost jobs. In fact, in the month of December, the total job growth for the nation was only 1,000 --- 600 of which were in Rhode Island. How about that? By my calculations, Little Rhody produced 60 percent of the job growth in this country."
Good lord! So, subtracting our 60%, the rest of the country gained 400 jobs, which works out to - let's see, divide by 49, carry the 3 -
eight jobs per state. Not too shabby, George!
Now, why did we miss the boat on the Draft Carcieri movement for the Republican nomination? Sure, he's wrong on a lot of social issues, but apparently unlike his doofus pal in the White House, he actually knows how to stimulate an economy.
(My own personal note to end on-- as far as the social issues reference goes, Carcieri is staunchly anti-choice and anti-gay-marriage, even civil unions. However this does come from a strong belief in Catholic dogma, which means that he is also vehemently anti-death-penalty, so no chance at least that he'll pull a Mitt Romney and try and introduce that to this traditionally-anti-death-penalty state).