Nonetheless, the president was out this morning promising another 600,000 jobs “created or saved” this summer, and touting the 150K jobs he’s already allegedly “created or saved.” “Now we’re in a position to really accelerate,” Obama said. “Dear God, no!” one could hear the unemployment rate squealing softly in the distance, if one listened closely enough.
You know things are actually bad when the first critic the AP quotes is an analyst instead of a Republican spokesperson. There seems to be some confusion on messaging, too. I blame Joe Biden:
And, as if “saved or created” wasn’t a fatuous enough standard to begin with, Obama continues to claim that he’s “saved or created” 150,000 jobs during the same time the economy has lost 1.6 million. He could at least drop the “created” half of the canard. Then, I guess, “Hey, if we hadn’t gone $700 billion further into debt in the last three months, we would have lost 1.75 million jobs” isn’t an argument he wants to make. Sure, the jobs news isn’t great, but Obama has to start showing some bang for the buck he’s “investing” in “recovery,” according to the newest Gallup numbers, which show his approval ratings slipping on spending and handling of the deficit. Forty-eight percent disapprove of his handling of the deficit, while 51 percent disapprove of his federal spending predilections, creeping down from previous months’ measurements:
While Obama’s personal approval ratings are still high, the slip in approval in these areas could be damaging to Democratic aspirations in 2009 and ’10. Displeasure with spending rates and deficit explosion already showed the potential to get hundreds of thousands of protesters on the streets in April, during the Tax Day Tea Party protests. The administration can’t be happy that the sentiment is spreading.
