We’ve been waiting for the Barack Obama re-election campaign to come up with a new slogan ever since they added a period to “FORWARD.” If the last 24 hours are any indication, the new slogan is either “INCOMPLETE” or possibly “GIVE ME ONE MORE CHANCE.” After Barack Obama gave himself an “incomplete” on the economy in a Colorado Springs TV news interview last night, ABC’s Jake Tapper asks Team Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter whether that “cut[s] it” as an answer. Absolutely, Cutter responds:
TAPPER: “So President Obama was asked recently about the grade he would give himself. And once again he gave himself an incomplete. It’s been four years. Does that answer cut it? An incomplete after a full term?”CUTTER: “Yeah, it does, because, you know, once again I’ll remind you of what life was like when he took office. 800,000 jobs were lost in that month alone. 3.5 million in the 6 months prior. And, you know, pretty quickly he was able to turn job loss into job growth. But when he’s saying incomplete, it means a number of different things. One: we’re on a path forward. You know, we’re on our way up. And there is a lot more that he wants to get done. He’s not done yet.”
We’re moving forward? Really? Unemployment has been above 8% since before the recovery began, and we’ve only averaged an additional 66,000 jobs per months since — far below the level needed to keep up with population growth. Once again, here’s the latest from the BLS on the civilian participation rate, which started at 65.7% when Obama took office and was at the same level when the recovery began in June 2009 — but has plunged ever since, to a 30-year low:
Cutter says, “He’s not done yet.” That’s what keeps many of us awake at night.
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