'Well, President Obama Has 'Won' When It Comes To Transforming American Jobs

Coach Frank Howard of Clemson

The latest jobs report is out. President Obama has officially 'won' when it comes to 'changing' America, that is for sure.

Just a few highlights (lowlights?) from the NY Times article (the flipping NEW YORK TIMES printed this)

• Perhaps the most striking was a plunge in the share of Americans who are either working or looking for work, which fell to its lowest level since 1978.
• Earlier estimates of job growth in July and June were revised sharply downward
• Unemployment, however, fell for the “wrong reasons,” because people dropped out of the labor force and so were no longer counted as unemployed, and not because more unemployed people found jobs.
• There were 7.9 million Americans who wanted to work full-time but could find only part-time work. 
• When these workers and people who want a job but have stopped looking are included, the total underemployment rate rises to 13.7 percent.
• The big decline in the labor force in August was tied entirely to men dropping out; the number of women in the work force actually grew.

Presidents typically blame their predecessor for the troubles they inherited from them.

President Obama has certainly inherited a lot of economic-related problems. From himself.

There will be those who will say this is the inevitable trend of older Boomers retiring and going out to pasture for their golden years. If true, then, why is it only women who are finding more work in the workforce and not men?

As hard as it is to believe, the generational cohorts following the Boomers is in fact larger than the Boomers! Why isn't the number of young people entering the workforce more than replacing the older, aging hippie/flower children of the '60s who are leaving it?

The young people can't find jobs either!  Teenage unemployment this summer was abysmal according to former Obama economic advisor Christina Romer. The jobs number is 'nothing to crow about' she said on CNBC yesterday and 'we have still got a long way to go'.

That is like the coach of the Duke football team in 2006 after a winless season saying: 'We have nothing to crow about' but then not giving their fans any hope by saying 'we still have a long way to go'.

Coach Frank Howard of Clemson once was asked about the returning letterman from the previous year's 1-9 Tigers football team.

'You have a lot of experience returning, Coach' said one of the reporters.
'Yeah, we got a lotta experience coming back this year' drawled Coach Howard in his gruff, gravelly southern accent from Barlow Bend, Alabama, 'but it is all bad'.

Same with President Obama. Not only did he initiate the wrong policies during his first 4 years in office, he was determined to pursue the same wrong-headed policies in his second term.

And yet the American people voted for him decisively to do so.

Now with his determination to send cruise missiles into Syria probably regardless of what Congress says when they return this week, we have to wonder out loud how many of his ardent supporters are entirely happy with his performance in the White House so far?

These job numbers are his and his alone. Presidents are judged, fairly or not, by the numbers of jobs that were created under their watch and whether they presided over general economic prosperity and peace or not.

5 years is a long time to be waiting for the upturn to begin, don't you agree?

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