President Obama will grab credit for an improving economy in a series of speeches this week that the White House hopes will increase his political clout. The messaging effort is intended to portray Obama as focused on jobs, which voters repeatedly say is the most pressing issue facing Washington, according to the White House. Democratic allies argue it will allow Obama to go on offense after months in which he has been dragged down by political controversies that have dogged his second term and injured him in the polls.
How awesome do they think it is? TOUCHDOWN!!!
Strategists say it would have been more difficult for Obama to take credit a few months ago, where there was less evidence the economy was improving. “Before there was a worry that you’d be dancing and celebrating on the 20-yard line, but now the ball is in the end zone, you do have a recovering economy that he can now definitively point to with a lot of empirical data,” said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane.
Let’s take a quick survey of . The civilian labor force participation rate is at 63.5%, a tick better than the lowest it has been in forever. The slightly improved employment numbers are part-time jobs as businesses prepare for ObamaCare by cutting out full-time employees. As the WSJ :
The disappointments include a big jump of 247,000 in the number of “discouraged workers,” those who have stopped looking for a job. This could be a one-month anomaly given the other increases, but it bears watching. Also disappointing is the big jump in the number of Americans who want to work full time but could only find part-time work. That number leapt to 8.23 million, a 322,000 one-month increase. Total part-time employment rose by 432,000, more than double the total number of net new jobs. The broadest measure of unemployment—which includes discouraged workers and those who can’t find a full-time job for economic reasons—still totals more than 20 million Americans and the rate unexpectedly rose in June to 14.3% from 13.8%.
WOO-HOO! LET’S SPEND TAXPAYER MONEY TRAVELING AROUND TAKING CREDIT FOR THAT HUGE SUCCESS!!!!
TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!