Unemployment falls below 8

[Burgold]

Or that the people who were called were Republicans with jobs who lied and said they were unmployed.

Just for the sake of conspirasy.

What's more likely, that tens of thousands of Democrats conspired to like to cook the books enough to cause the needle to drop .3% or that Big Oil, the refiners, and others in this country decided to artificially bid up the price of oil and keep them higher at the pump to try to give the GOP and the wallets a boost.

One would be win-win for the Republicans... and with a little collusion very possible. The other would take a coordinated lie amongst 10's of thousands of people "randomly sampled" who decided that lying would benefit their party.

Personally, I think neither is likely, but I don't put it beyond the Oil Barons to try to figure out some way to stick to the guy trying to champion alternative energy and not them.

[Elessar78]

Personally I thought that particular conspiracy theory was even funnier than the one about the Obama administration actively cooking the books. So basically, every single Democrat and liberal in the USA all got on a conference call a month or so ago and decided that if they were to receive a call for the BLS survey and they were jobless they would just lie and say they did have a job so that it would help Obama get re-elected.

Actually I have my own take on that one. I don't think all Dems and liberals in the USA got on a conference call (that would just be silly and unrealistic). Instead, I think Obama has had the CIA working on a mind control machine that manipulated the sleeping subconscious. He then tuned it to influence people to lie about their employment status.

chaos on bull**** mountain

[Burgold]

Turns out that the GOP invested so much energy in the number 8 that you are seeing the fruits of it now. They've been pounding 8 as being the threshold that proves Obama's failure. 8 was the number that showed the economy was horrible. 8,8,8 they repeated like Jan Brady.

Little did they think that it would fall below 8 and because it did... it's thrown them into a panic. The strange thing is, it wouldn't be a hard case to make that 7.8 is pretty bad, but they drew a line in the sand and we just crossed it.

[twa]

funny thing about sand drawings, they tend to change

[NLC1054]

Turns out that the GOP invested so much energy in the number 8 that you are seeing the fruits of it now. They've been pounding 8 as being the threshold that proves Obama's failure. 8 was the number that showed the economy was horrible. 8,8,8 they repeated like Jan Brady.

Little did they think that it would fall below 8 and because it did... it's thrown them into a panic. The strange thing is, it wouldn't be a hard case to make that 7.8 is pretty bad, but they drew a line in the sand and we just crossed it.

The Republicans have this stubborn, never ending insistence that acknowledging Obama did anything right is some sort of failure on their part. It's what happens when you spend four years calling the guy an abject failure; when he succeeds, you can either acknowledge the success but point out the flaws in that success, or you can stick your fingers in your ears and go "LALALALA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

I mean...here's a line that you could easily say, and you don't even have to acknowledge Obama is part of the cause.

"Today we got some positive news for America. Today unemployment has dropped below 7.8% for the first time since 2009. This is great news for millions of Americans. Unfortunately, that are tens of millions still unemployed or underemployed. You were promised a recovery, and there has been some small recovery. But this recovery is too slow. Instead of finding good jobs that pay a living wage, many are finding part-time employment and living paycheck to paycheck. And perhaps more sadly, man Americans are simply choosing to stop looking for work altogether. This was not the change you were promised."

BOOM. Easy, sensible, appealing across a broad demographic and every political party.

Instead, like always, they chose the nuclear option.

[RedskinsFan44]

Congressman Alan West is another one spewing the conspiracy bull****.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SVt0UHCmv4


He is either a moron who doesn't know better or a scumbag who does and is slopping the trough of his Tea Party constituency. My guess is the latter.

Definitely the latter. The guy is sure to end up with a radio gig or on Fox after he loses his congressional seat.

[GSF]

funny thing about sand drawings, they tend to change

Are you referring to Romney's policy etch-a-sketch?

[twa]

Are you referring to Romney's policy etch-a-sketch?

it certainly applies, though I thought ya'll valued flexibility ?

the progressives used to pine for him to win the nomination....things change

[Prosperity]

it certainly applies, though I thought ya'll valued flexibility ?

the progressives used to pine for him to win the nomination....things change

and you used to dread it

birds of a feather or something like that

[aREDSKIN]

another view-


There’s been a lot of talk about a conspiracy on the part of the administration to release unexpected, unrealistically high numbers in order to swing the election. The idea was mooted by former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, who Tweeted, “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.” The accusation is far from original. Democrats accused George W Bush of misrepresenting the labour market all the time – so it’s safe to say that everyone always cries shenanigans whenever their opponent achieves something good for the economy. It’s part of the ugly joy of partisan politics.

But conspiracy theories aside, there are two problems with the administration’s report. First, there’s the question of what figure to use to calculate employment levels because there are two data sets available. One is the establishment survey, which is based on payrolls and puts the jobs gained at 114,000 – an unusually low number for this time of year. The second is the household survey, which is based on what people say they are doing at the moment. The household survey puts the jobs gained at 873,000 – an unusually high number for this time of year. In fact, the household figure is so high that it’s likely that it’s a statistical fluke. The problem is that the media is reporting the generous household figure rather than unkind establishment figure, and few outlets are willing to discuss the discrepancy between the two.


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ti...ry-is-dubious/

[Larry]

Anxiously awaiting support for the claim that the unemployment number hasn't always been calculated based on the household survey.

[Burgold]

Anxiously awaiting support for the claim that the unemployment number hasn't always been calculated based on the household survey.

It's the same as the poll logic. If the polls are against us and show our candidate lagging, clearly they are unscientific, biased, and poorly designed. If that same poll shows improvement for our candidate, it's a clear demonstration of trendlines and what people are thinking.

What's amazing is that they're not even embarrassed by such a crass pivot.

Here, there is somewhat less hypocrisy as the GOP has been saying for years that the numbers are an underrepresentation of the true unemployment picture. In fact, they've been saying the government has been cooking the books since the day after Obama was elected. Mind you, the day before the President was elected that same formula was pretty much unquestioned.

[twa]

It's the same as the poll logic. .

amazing how that works ain't it
I prefer to look at the underlying numbers myself, but the big picture seems to get more play.

a amusing look at past logic and reporting on job numbers
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/0...-then-and-now/

[AsburySkinsFan]

Anxiously awaiting support for the claim that the unemployment number hasn't always been calculated based on the household survey.

Well surely this is all part of some giant cover up. I think it is hilarious that now that the economy is finally back to where Obama picked it up at (after it was broken) that now the Right wants to change the rules about how things are measured. Talk about moving the goal posts.

[Larry]

Well surely this is all part of some giant cover up. I think it is hilarious that now that the economy is finally back to where Obama picked it up at (after it was broken) that now the Right wants to change the rules about how things are measured. Talk about moving the goal posts.

Now, now.

As Burgold has correctly pointed out, the Republicans have been pushing the idea that we need a special way of calculating the unemployment numbers (one which just happens to make things worse) since Obama got elected.