All along they have been terrified of this President. Their desperate fears have led them to deem him a foreigner, a socialist, a communist, an individual bent on destroying America, someone they have caricatured as the very epitome of evil.
The idea of Barack Obama, an individual who happens to be African American and one who breaks long standing myths about what they consider an African American to be, in terms of his ability to perform and excel in the most powerful position in the world, has demoralized the Right on such a profound level that they have recalibrated long standing norms of behavior in order to guarantee his defeat.
They have pushed the meme in civilized forums that their resistance to Barack Obama has never been based on some orchestrated agenda to oppose him, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statement, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President” notwithstanding, but rather, they say, to rid the nation of a president who is simply too “incompetent” to lead this nation.
Barack Obama, the President who has passed the historic Affordable Care Act health care law and saved the US automobile industry, they suggest must go, because he has failed to accomplish anything of note for the nation, except to increase the number of Americans on unemployment.
Since the beginning of the 2012 presidential campaign and for many years prior, Republicans and the media have pointed to figures, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, when discussing the status of employment within the United States.
For months, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, as well as other Republicans, and media outlets, have pointed to the unemployment rate being above 8 percent as a means of disqualifying President Obama’s stewardship of the economy. In September, the former Massachusetts governor, following the release of the latest job numbers, said this:
This is more of the same for middle-class families, who are suffering through the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression. After 43 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent, it is clear that President Obama just hasn't lived up to his promises, and his policies haven't worked.
How did Romney gage the state of employment? He did so through figures published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, many on the Right are changing their tune. Following the release of job figures on Friday, showing the unemployment rate at 7.8 percent, Republicans began the process of sewing doubt in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch
tweeted:
Unbelievable jobs numbers...these Chicago guys will do anything...can’t debate so change numbers.
CNBC host Rick Santelli
said:
I told you they'd get it under 8%--they did!
And Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe said:
Somebody’s got to explain this. This doesn’t make sense. This doesn’t make sense.
Republicans it appear are muddying the waters. Throwing doubt on any narrative that contributes to the possibility of Barack Obama returning to the presidency.
Appearing on Anderson Cooper 360, on CNN, Welch and Copper
participated in a back and forth concerning his tweet:
COOPER: So, do you really believe that people in the Obama campaign, the Chicago guys that you tweeted about, that they cooked the numbers?
Welch not only attempted to raise doubts about the job numbers, but, to give his accusations merit, he began to raise doubts about past numbers, something Republicans had failed to do in years of using these published BLS numbers to criticize the President:
Welch: The plausibility just doesn't seem right. Now, maybe the numbers were wrong before. Maybe they're wrong now, I don't know. But I'm involved in this economy in a very deep way right now with lots of businesses, and this economy is not growing, I'll guarantee you, at five percent.
Cooper continued to press him on his suggestion that the numbers had been manufactured in some way:
COOPER: But what evidence --
WELCH: I have no evidence.
COOPER: You don't have any evidence.
WELCH: No.
COOPER: It's one thing to doubt the numbers and say --
WELCH: I used question marks last night.
COOPER: Well, you said these Chicago guys will do anything.
WELCH: A question mark might have been better. Last night I had a question mark.
Cooper continued to press the subject, specifically on Welch's reference to "Chicago guys will do anything".
COOPER: But you are. You are saying these Chicago guys will do anything.
WELCH: Well, you've seen they have been calling Romney a liar for the last two days. I mean --
COOPER: But how would they cook the books? How would they cook the numbers, given the process?
WELCH: Look, I have no idea whether these books are cooked. I'm very clear about that.
COOPER: But you think they may be?
WELCH: I don't know. It's implausible to have this number of people added which would represent a 5 percent GDP growth, in the second quarter, Anderson, we dropped the GDP estimate from 1.7 to 1.3.
COOPER: But given that you say you have no facts, and you don't know, isn't it irresponsible to then say these Chicago -- you are a respected guy, to say these Chicago guys will do anything? You're implying --
WELCH: I'm saying you heard the president today; he's out there on 7.8. This number is too important to not to have a long discussion about how it's arrived at, what the assumptions are. Last month, participation rate, the lowest since Jimmy Carter.
Welch calls for an investigation.
One has to ask, has there been concern that the White House has manufatured BLS numbers before?
COOPER: But, has there ever in history been any evidence of a White House cooking the books?
WELCH: I have no evidence of that.
COOPER: I mean, as far as -- I have been reading about this stuff --
WELCH: Somebody ought to be investigating. Somebody should have looked at this and said wait a minute, we just dropped the GDP this much. How can we have the greatest economy since June of '83?
COOPER: But, there are legitimate questions about how the house - I mean, it seems like your problem is how the household survey is done and that's very legitimate. There are always questions and they're always revising the numbers.
WELCH: I want to have a long discussion about it.
Ali Velshi, CNN’s Chief Business Correspondent, joined the conversation and appealed to Welch as “the best CEO America has ever had.”
VELSHI: There are two great facts you make, Jack. You know, as the best CEO America has ever had, there are two very powerful things you can say here. One is let's take a look at how the BLS, bureau of labor statistics and department of labor measures unemployment, number one, and b, maybe you think Barack Obama's not doing a good job and Mitt Romney should be replacing him.
But to honestly suggest that there's corruption that the Obama campaign may have had something to do with cooking these books, why do you need to do that at a time when U.S. trust for government and institutions is at an all-time low. That is not good for society. What does Jack Welch gain by introducing this? There are so many CEOs who talk nonsense. What do you gain from this, Jack? Why don't you take this opportunity to take it back?
WELCH: Ali, I love you. I'm not talking nonsense, OK?
Welch would soon reveal himself and his motivations as Velshi turned his attention to promises on the economy made by Romney:
VELSHI: OK. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this, Jack.
I agree with you. This is a lousy economy. 1.3 percent GDP growth is lousy and yet on Wednesday night, Mitt Romney said again and by the way, Barack Obama backs up this claim that either one of them will create 12 million jobs in four years. That is three million jobs a year or 250,000 jobs a month. We got 114.
At 1.3 percent economic growth there's not an economist in this country who thinks it will be higher than three percent in 2013 and probably similar in 2014 and 2015. That's a lie, too, right? Why don't you call Mitt Romney out on that?
WELCH: Well, because Mitt Romney is thinking about a plan which would lower regulations, which would change the tax, which would drive an energy policy that's very aggressive. I don't know if he's going to get 12. I'm not a Romney surrogate. I'm not in the campaign. I have never talked to the campaign.
Beyond Welch’s claim that he has no connection to the Romney campaign and the suggestion that his “concern” had nothing to do with the attempt to prevent Barack Obama from being reelected and a desire to have the presidency return to the control of Republicans, the frightened, disingenuous, and accusatory former General Electric CEO, in a moment reminiscent of a legendary scene from some television court room drama, opened his mouth and revealed with pure unadulterated sincerity why he and all those other Republicans have been criticizing the job numbers, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Welch admited in a moment of Republican desperation:
WELCH: I just believe this number should not determine the outcome of the presidential election.
Yes...despite all they have done for almost four years, since Barack Obama became President, from Mitch McConnell, to Fox News, to the sabotaging Republican congress, all armed with lies, accusations, and manufactured illustrations that pretend to claim that Barack Obama has failed the nation, they are now at the mercy of an economy that is obviously improving, and kneeling in desperate supplication to a simple 7.8 percent unemployment number…. Desperation is putting it kindly....
Video link:
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/...