Conservatives have been crowing about the third quarter GDP growth, which was over 7%. A truly remarkable number, to be sure, and the highest single-quarter rate of growth since 1984. So, does this mean that Bush is succeeding in turning the economy around? I don't know. I suppose it might. So far, he's put together a solid string of consecutive quarters showing positive economic growth, and a couple quarters in a row of good growth.
But there are still problems. Economic growth is a wonderful thing, but it's kind of abstract. On most of the concrete issues that real people deal with every day, things still don't look so good. In the same third-quarter, for instance, that just gave us a 20-year high for GDP growth, the economy as a whole continued to suffer a net loss of jobs. Some jobs were created, but even more were lost. If we had seen a small net increase in jobs, I would have found it easier to believe Republican claims that Bush has beaten the economy. But Bush and his tax cuts haven't even stopped the job losses yet, much less started turning it around. No matter what GDP does between now and next November, Bush is still going to have the worst job creation record of any President since Herbert Hoover.
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