In a lull of news for media to cover, what do they do? If you have not had your fill of royal watching, which is something like whale watching for enthusiasts, then you must have blacked out the news.
It is not entirely media’s fault that news is a bit slow, considering all the scandals or news they cannot cover and the controversies of the administration that are pretty much off limits. That left the Zimmerman trial and the royal birth as top billing for media coverage. Everyone loves a good racist story or the countdown to a birth from UK’s royals.
But that is real news, they insist. We now know the baby is worth a billion dollars. You cannot take it with you when you die, but nothing says one can’t be born into a billion-dollar net worth.
One only has to look at all the things which are not worthy of media coverage: Benghazi, IRS, Fast and Furious, or ObamaCare’s many looming turns. Next to those, camping outside a hospital to see a baby brought out is a welcomed announcement. They could use anything about George Zimmerman to fill the gaps. If it was the civil war, they’d call the uniforms controversial. Media has its unique way of framing what is important.
I guess that is why Obama took to the campaign trail talking about the economy. It gives them something else they are permitted to talk about. That’s a relief, after the Royal baby arrived they were running low on subject matter. How many weeks have they dragged out the Zimmerman trial?
So Obama debuts his latest campaign speech attack, which is just like all the others, to blame Republicans “for engaging in an “endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals.”
“Washington has taken its eye off the ball,” Obama said in what was billed as a major economic address at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. “And I am here to say this needs to stop.”
He just got off a huge vacation in Africa, then Friday comes out to stick his nose into the Zimmerman verdict, after dropping the bomb that he was delaying ObamaCare laws for corporations for a year – until the elections — but he charges others have taken their eyes off the economic ball.
Didn’t economic issues have enough sensationalism for Obama’s taste? He must have missed everybody else complaining and talking about the economy all along — which he implied was a non-issue. Now comes the lecture that everyone else has taken their eye off the economy… and the scandals are phony. He takes hypocrisy to a new high.
If there was any take away line from Obama, this could be it:
“I’m here today to tell you what you already know — we’re not there yet.”
He came to tell us what we already know! Gee, thanks. You could have saved your breath, everyone’s time, and a whole lot of money by staying in Washington. Maybe giving the lackluster, polished turd speech from there. This is partisan campaigning — not turning his eye to the economy. So turning his eye to the economy is killing the XL pipeline and declaring war on coal? (along with the job killing ObamaCare)
Congress is just getting ready for its recess, so time for Obama to blast away just before shuttling off to Martha’s Vineyard for another bite at the vacation apple. Maybe he can lecture us about the economy from there?
I saw this in a new Factcheck statement:
“Consumer prices have risen a modest 9.9 percent since Obama first took office”
A “modest” increase? Well, if you factor into that that wages in some sectors actually declined — for example in some health related jobs — as much as 5%, then it feels more like a 14.9 % differential.
That is not a good humor pill, and not great that we saw almost a 10% spike in prices. But consider just the gas price increases since he took office. I know it is not 9.9 percent, we could only wish it was that.
Last year, August of 2012, Bloomberg news reported:
The cost of living in the U.S. climbed in August by the most in more than three years, reflecting a surge in fuel costs.
The 0.6 increase in the consumer-price index was the biggest since June 2009 and followed no change in the previous month, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The median forecast of 85 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an advance of 0.6 percent. The core index, which excludes volatile food and fuel costs, climbed a less-than- projected 0.1 percent for a second month.
As of January 2012, gasoline had an 83% increase and ground beef a 24% increase, since he took office. But Factcheck tells us we just had a “modest” 9.9% CPI increase since ’09. Ground beef prices rose every month from November 2009 to January 2012 – 26 months of price increases. (We had a 30.8% increase in gas prices in 50 days -before July ’09.)
