Oct
8
2010

Barackrobatics: In the Right Direction (October Update)

[A recycled post, updated with new links.]

It's another month of lousy unemployment news:

A wave of government layoffs in September outpaced weak hiring in the private sector, pushing down the nation's payrolls by a net total of 95,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months, the longest stretch since the 1930s.
So let's see what President Obama has to say. From a DNC Dinner in Cresskill, NJ the other evening ($30,000 a plate), held in the no-doubt-lovely home of one Michael Kempner:
And so, as Michael said, we're moving in the right direction.
And:
To change a system that large takes time, but we are now moving in the right direction.
And:
So we've had to make a lot of tough decisions. But I am extraordinarily confident that we're moving in the right direction.
And:
… many of you are a testament to the continuing strength and vitality of American democracy and the American economy. But in order for us to continue going in the right direction, we've got to sustain it.
Whoa. Four times with the "in the right direction." (Today's exercise: look up the word verbigeration and use it in a sentence.)

If you're keeping score, this makes October the eighth consecutive month in which President Obama has insisted at some point that the economy is headed in the right direction. (And 18 out of the last 19 months.)

And we continue to be reminded of one more quote:

President Hoover stated today that the trend of employment had changed in the right direction. He announced after the Cabinet meeting that the Department of Labor had informed him ...
… from the New York Times, January 22, 1930.