RUSH: The Associated Press: “When it comes to the economy, half of Americans in a new poll say it wonÂ’t matter much whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney wins — even though the presidential candidates have staked their chances on which one would be better at fixing the economic mess.” Do you believe this? Do you believe this? This is the latest propaganda point from the White House and from the AP, that a president really has no effect on the economy. That’s what this story says.
Can you imagine…? Let’s say it’s 2004, and Karl Rove calls up someone at the AP. “You know what? Really, the president doesn’t have any say over the economy.”
Can you imagine the AP running that, as stenographers? When’s the last time you heard anybody in the media say that the economy is irrelevant to a presidential election? ‘Cause that’s what the AP is trying to tell people. And what does that tell you? It tells you that they know the economy is not gonna be seriously rebounding. And it tells you that they know that there’s nothing they can do about it with their policies, and that they don’t intend to do anything with different policies.
So they don’t intend the economy to get any better. So the obvious conclusion from AP is, “Weeell, presidents really can’t do anything.” And by the same token, whatever’s wrong with the economy, Obama had nothing to do with it. “Presidents don’t have anything to do with the economy!” I go back to the review of The Newsroom: Create this delusional fantasyland and have your news executives and your journalists do it for you. Doesn’t that kinda throw the “Bush ruined the economy” inheritance out the window?
If you’re gonna say that presidents have no control over the economy, if you’re gonna say that presidents have nothing to do with it, then it doesn’t matter what Bush left Obama with, does it? Do you think the AP would think of that? Somebody from the AP gets a call from the White House: “By the way, here’s what we want you to cover today: The economy, presidents have nothing to say about it.”
You think somebody in the AP would say, “Wait a second! For the last 3-1/2 years you’ve had us blaming Bush for the rotten economy you inherited. Now you’re telling us that Bush had nothing to do with it?”
“No. We’re just telling you that from this day forward, presidents have nothing to do with the economy.”
The guy at the AP says, “Oh, okay. Yeah, we can make that work.”
And then they do the story.
Well, if they want to stick with this, then it’s bye-bye Bush being blamed for all this rotten economy stuff that poor Barack Kardashian inherited. I marvel. I marvel at this stuff. “Back on May 10th,” a little over a month ago or a month and a half ago, the same poll, AP-GfK… Whatever organization that is. I think it’s some German bunch. AP-GfK found that “Americans are growing more pessimistic about the economy and handling it remains President Barack Obama’s weak spot and biggest challenge in his bid for a second term.”
So back on May 10th, they had a poll showing the American people “are growing more pessimistic about the economy” and Obama’s handling of it is his “biggest challenge.” On June 14th, Gallup had a poll: “Americans Still Blame Bush More Than Obama for Bad Economy.” Now today on June 26th, AP-GfK poll, guess what? Presidents have nothing to do with the economy! I guess blaming Bush isn’t working. And I guess Obama getting credit from non-improvement (’cause there isn’t gonna be any) isn’t gonna work.
The number of American adults who are in the workforce but are either out of a job completely or working only part time ’cause they can’t find a full-time job is 17.8%. It’s essentially the U-6 number in the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics number.
17.8%.
That’s the number that Romney needs to be using.
That’s the number that Romney needs to be talking about, not this 8.1% or 8.2% stuff.
17.8%.
That’s the number of American adults in the workforce, either out of a job completely or working only part time ’cause they can’t find full-time jobs.
17.8%.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, that same AP story says the deficit is not the president’s fault, either. That 55% of the American people say, “Eh, the deficit, that’s not a big deal. The president doesn’t have any control over the deficit.” So the AP: A majority of Americans say the president has nothing to do with the economy. And a majority of Americans, 55%, say that he has nothing to do with the deficit.
TIME Magazine, a guy named Michael Crowley: “One-Note Mitt: Is Romney Too Focused on the Economy?” It’s a concerted effort out there. The media’s gotten together, Romney scoring too big on the economy. Obama getting hurt too much by a bad economy. Media gotten together, and now, the economy doesn’t matter, presidents have nothing to say about it, and Mitt, you’re overdoing it on the economy, buddy. You’re too focused on the economy. It ain’t gonna help you, Mitt. You better shut up about the economy. You’re just one-note samba out there, Johnny One Note. Mitt, you gotta move on to the social issues or something. What a bunch of pathetic, incompetent, blatant pure partisans.
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