Economy, Politics Collide for Bush Team

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46654-2004Aug6?language=printer

<snip>

Democrats have begun to portray Bush's sunny rhetoric as a clumsy effort to whistle past the graveyard. A revised stump speech Bush unveiled last week included the mantra "We are turning the corner, and we're not turning back." Democrats pointed out that Hoover said on March 7, 1930, "Prosperity is just around the corner."

Kerry has hammered Bush on the phraseology ever since. "Saying we've turned the corner doesn't make it so," he said yesterday. "America will not turn the corner to better days until we have a new president who can see our problems and take action to fix them."

<snip>

Policy suggestions such as extending health care to the uninsured or brokering a deal to curb asbestos litigation are coming from all corners of the GOP. But those suggestions are running up against cautious advisers who believe Bush should not court controversy, said Steve Moore, who heads the conservative political action committee Club for Growth.

"They're really divided between two camps, the 'Morning in America' crowd for running on the record of the last four years, against others who say, 'Let's not run on Morning in America because if we want to actually do something in the next four years, we need a mandate, we need to talk about policy.' "

The first camp has thus far held sway, Moore said, and "paradoxically, the worse Bush stands in the polls, the more risk-averse they will be."

And from NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/politics/campaign/07jobs.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

All week long, President Bush traveled the country, cheerfully telling audiences that ''we've turned the corner'' on the economy. But on Friday, in the face of the government's paltry new numbers on job growth, the president's new slogan suddenly sounded premature at best.

Republicans had hoped the early indications this year that the economy was turning the corner would have allowed them to neutralize, or even turn to their advantage, the issue that John Kerry had once considered central to his White House bid. Instead, the new numbers, coming just three weeks before the G.O.P. convention, leave little doubt that the economy could still be a potent issue for the Democrats.

<snip>

The campaigns dispute the effect that the jobs numbers will have on voters. David Winston, a Republican pollster, said the numbers were disappointing, but insisted that voters would not judge the president on them. "It's like if you have a baseball player like Barry Bonds and he goes 0 for 4 one day and you decide to trade him, as opposed to looking at the totality of his performance for the entire season,'' he said.

Like the Bush campaign, Representative Tom Delay, the Texas Republican who is the House majority leader, lauded the dip in the unemployment rate. "These statistics show that our economy is moving in the right direction,'' he said in a statement, "but also that there is more work to be done.'' He has been seeking to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

But Tad Devine, a senior strategist for the Kerry campaign, said that voters' perceptions were solidifying and that any suggestion that they would wait until Election Day to assess Mr. Bush and the economy was "ludicrous."

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. .

[PartyPooper]

2. Junior doesn't even know the meaning of a "corner".

So, how can he say we turned it?

:dunce:

[SidDithers]

3. LOL... this quote is too funny to let go by....

The campaigns dispute the effect that the jobs numbers will have on voters. David Winston, a Republican pollster, said the numbers were disappointing, but insisted that voters would not judge the president on them. "It's like if you have a baseball player like Barry Bonds and he goes 0 for 4 one day and you decide to trade him, as opposed to looking at the totality of his performance for the entire season,'' he said."


More like a batter, who's been below the Mendoza line for 3 years, having a hot streak for a few games, before falling back below .200

That guy, you get rid of as soon as his contract is up.

Sid

Edit: spelling

[mom cat]

Turning the corner, Mission accomplished, End to hostilities,

Soveiregnty in Iraq. And tom Delay thinks it is a good sigh that job growth has stalled. Does anyone else think that the rabbit hole is getting crowded?

[aquart]

4. They don't have a lot to brag about, do they?

The liars' convention in NYC should be interesting.

I just wish all the protestors would stay home.

[struggle4progress]

5. U.S. finds job growth hit skids in July

Weak numbers jolt Wall St., Washington
Saturday, August 07, 2004
BY JOELLE TESSLER
Star-Ledger Staff
... "These numbers were unambiguously weak," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Charles Schwab's Washington Research Group ... "Corporate America is sitting on its hands," said Jose Rasco, senior economist with Merrill Lynch. "It is not hiring" ...
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-17/1091855490311760.xml


Posted on Fri, Aug. 06, 2004
Few new July jobs mean economy wavering, experts warn
By TONY PUGH
Knight Ridder Newspapers
... In addition, the Labor Department revised downward - by 61,000 - job gains that had been reported earlier for May and June ... With the spending bounce from recent tax cuts exhausted now, interest rates moving up, and higher gas and oil prices pinching consumers, "there are reasons to think the economy is slowing down," said Lee Price, research director at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research group in Washington ...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/9339699.htm


July slack in jobs stuns economists
By TAMMY JOYNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/07/04
... "I was clearly floored," said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp. "This is clearly a shot out of left field. It's clearly outside the expectations in the marketplace both in the number of jobs and the source of the weakness" ...
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/0804/07econ.html


Employment gain in U.S. is slowing
David Leonhardt NYT
Saturday, August 7, 2004
New sign that the economy weakens, making problems for Bush campaign
NEW YORK
... "It's clear that the economy is hitting a soft patch," said Richard DeKaser, chief economist at National City, a bank based in Cleveland. "What we're seeing is the severe impact of high oil prices" ... Joshua Shapiro, an economist at MFR, a consulting firm in New York, called the employment report "terribly disappointing" in a letter to clients. Goldman Sachs said, "Obviously, these numbers are extremely weak and represent a big surprise" ...
http://www.iht.com/articles/532996.html


Job growth stuck in neutral
In an election year, economy plays key role in political debate
By DAVID LEONHARDT
THE NEW YORK TIMES
... "The economy is spinning its wheels again," said Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research in New York. "Corporate America is reluctant to hire anyone above the bare minimum" ...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/185327_economy07.html

Jobs issue may fall hardest on Bush
Markets tumble on the economic report's release
By JULIE MASON
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
... "This is not good news for the president, especially since his approval ratings on the economy had begun to inch up a little to around 47 or 48 percent," said Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center ... Even so, the jobs picture caused stocks to tumble. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped to a low for the year, and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 147.70 points, or 1.5 percent, to close at 9815.33, its lowest closing since November ...
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2723298


U.S. economy sideswipes Bush
By ALAN FREEMAN
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
... Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar fell against all major world currencies, including the Canadian dollar. Adding to the economic gloom, the Labour Department reported that the average hourly wage in July was $15.70 (U.S.), up 1.9 per cent over the previous year, but well below the 3.2-per-cent inflation rate ... Unless there's a sudden surge in job growth over the next few months, Mr. Bush will likely have the dubious honour of being the first president since Herbert Hoover in 1932 to report a lower total level of employment on Election Day than he had on entering office four years earlier ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040807.wecono7/BNStory/Front/


Indicators Show a Cooling Economy
By Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page A01 <snip>
... The average private workweek lengthened to 33.7 hours in July, a gain of six minutes compared with June, but below the May level of 33.8 hours ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46729-2004Aug6.html

[saigon68]

6. THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

CHIMPY'S RIDE THROUGH PURGATORY

[loudsue]

7. "the president's new slogan suddenly sounded premature at best."

Yep...reminds me of "Mission Accomplished". Seems like bush does a LOT of things 'prematurely'. Pickles could prolly tell us, but he'd run the car into the garage door again if she did!

I liked Aquart's suggestion above....The RNC protesters should just stay home. Tell the NY Times, Washington Post, and any tv news stations that would listen, that they just realized that bush is such a loser, they thought they'd just let him keep hanging himself.

The RNC should be called the 'comedy hour'. Problem is, it isn't funny.

:kick::kick::kick: