Grading On A Curve

For the love of logic -- will Lefty politicians, commentators and blogospheroids PLEASE stop citing the bar-graph representation of recent U.S. job losses as proof that Obama's stewardship has saved the economy! Such self-serving, specious statements serve only to demonstrate how shallow you are, how dim you believe the public is...or (more likely) both.

The graph (at right) demonstrates that as the Great Recession

rippled round the world, monthly job losses compounded, getting progressively worse each month towards the end of the Bush years, staying horrible as Obama took his oath, and gradually slowing down as far fewer expendable workers remained on the clock. It is the exact pattern of every other job slump. It is the exact pattern that was expected. It is the exact pattern that would have occurred regardless of governmental  action/inaction (though the numbers and dates certainly can be slightly shifted by policy decisions). It is not a sign of Democrat magic.

No economist or pundit believed that EVERY job in America was going to be lost. A nation can only hemorrhage 800,000 jobs a month for so long, just as a flame can only burn until it runs out of fuel.  To boast that you were on watch when the disaster bottomed out is like a rooster claiming credit for the sunrise, or an Exxon official waiting for the Valdez's last drop to wash ashore before claiming "There -- I fixed it!".

That 100,000 non-census jobs were created in March is an encouraging sign, and a number worthy of cautious optimism. Let us hope that the trend continues and that the White House will eventually have bountiful, genuine positive news about which to crow. In the meantime, please stop taking credit for the natural ebbing of the unsustainable worst; such emotional and numerical manipulation seems desperate, deceitful, and -- frankly -- Rovian.