The Hannity Challenge: How To Make The Case That The Economy Is Improving
Sean Hannity pushed the myth that President Obama has made the economy worse, arguing that you could not "make the case" that it has improved during Obama's watch. In fact, when Obama took office, he inherited an economy that was shrinking faster than it had in 50 years and that had lost 2 million jobs in 3 months; by contrast, the economy is now growing and added 1.9 million private sector jobs last year.
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Hannity's Challenge: "How Do You Make The Case" That The Economy Has Improved
Hannity: "You Cannot Make The Case With A Straight Face That This Economy Has Gotten Better Under This President." Discussing the 2012 presidential election, Fox News' Sean Hannity claimed, "You cannot make the case with a straight face that this economy has gotten better under this president. You can't make it anymore." [Fox News, Hannity, 2/1/12]
This Is How You Make The Case That The Economy Has Improved
THEN: The Economy Was Contracting By Nearly 9 Percent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated that gross domestic product declined by 8.9 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008 -- the final quarter before President Obama took office. According to IHS Global Insight, GDP decline at the end of 2008 "represents the worst single-quarter decline in GDP since the 10.4 percent drop in the first quarter of 1958." [IHS Global Insight, 7/29/11]
NOW: The Economy Is Growing. In its initial estimate of economic growth during the fourth quarter of 2011, the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated that gross domestic product increased by 2.8 percent. [Bureau of Economic Analysis, 1/27/12]
THEN: The Economy Lost 2 Million Jobs In Three Months. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment decreased by 802,000 jobs in November 2008, 619,000 jobs in December 2008, and 820,000 jobs in January 2009 -- a total of 2.2 million jobs in three months. [Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed 2/1/12]
NOW: The Economy Added 1.9 Million Private Sector Jobs Last Year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, private sector employment increased by 1.9 million jobs in 2011. [Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1/6/12]
CNN: "Since Job Growth Resumed, The Economy Has Added About 3 Million Jobs." CNN.com reported:
The U.S. economy created about 2 million private-sector jobs in 2011, according to the BLS -- a figure comparable to 2005, when 1.9 million jobs were created. And since job growth resumed, the economy has added about 3 million jobs. [CNN.com, 1/25/12]
Gallup state numbers predict huge Obama loss...323 - 215 in the electoral college.
A perfect illustration of the old adage that there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Seeing "Obama's losses" having nothing to do with a Republican opponent has to be one of his best ones yet.
First off, we all know where these polls can be placed. Right now there is an anti-wealth, anti-power, anti-politician fervor in the air and much of it is well-deserved.
I'm actually a little surprised that we are starting to see economic growth, recovery, and consumer confidence returning. Despite the best efforts of the republicans to sabotage the American economy for political gain, we're seeing a definite turn around. That's going to be more important to the election then whatever a poll says.
Hannity is misleading his audience, claiming that there's no evidence that the economy is improving, and "wesley" is dishonestly trying to distract us from that fact.
Obama vs Romney = 47% - 45% Obama
Obama vs Gingrich = 51% - 39% Obama
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_romney_vs_obama-1171.html
Wesley, I'll hit the thumbs down for you. Wouldn't want you to hurt your fingers. :)
I think another part of his problem is that he thinks that everyone else is as incapable of original thought as he, himself, is. It must come as a huge surprise when his "facts" get destroyed by the actual, real ones.
I can go to that site and generate a map that shows President Obama with a 100% electoral win.
See the fine print, that's not really so fine and the disclaimer*. 2012 USER GENERATED MAP. ROFLMAO at nincompoops like wesely....
But then only a nincompoop reads teh 'Washington Examiner' and thinks he's on to something.... DOUBLE LOL....
Pretty sad how the generic republican out-polls them every time.
"Sure it is improving, why it's almost back up to a GROWTH rate that was called a recession in the 00s."
Let me guess, Sean Hannity, the college dropout called it a recession back then, or perhaps you would like to provide your source that brought you to conclude this.
Markets are going up, Unemployment is going down, GDP is growing, Talking Heads are now switching from the economy isn't improving, to it's not improving fast enough. Sounds like an improving economy to me.
A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. We have had positive growth. Therefore, you are not only a liar, but also completely uninformed.
The FACT of the matter is that there is no way the case can be made that the economy has NOT improved under Obama. There is not a single indicator - GDP, Unemployement, # of Private Secror jobes, DJIA, S&P, NASDAQ... That has gone consistently upwards since March of 2009, just a couple of Months after Obama took office. And thw biggest bumps upward all occured at the height of the stimulus.
Remove Republican Obstruction / Obama's pandering to them and the completely artificial debt crisis that they (the Republicans) created out of thin air and we'd be doing even better.
There is no case to be made to Vote Republican. Period.
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IMHO
UTOPIA
I wonder how Hannity will spin this one.
I think it's quite telling that the right-wing mouthpiece is actually worried (and probably dismayed) that the economy is actually improving. They'd rather see it bad so they could use it as a political tool.
-- Let's say you are wearing a snowsuit on a 90 degree day in July. Now let's say the temperature drops to 89. Do you think you will feel much cooler? --
Oh, I agree completely with your comment.
Has it improved enough to warrant another four years for Pres. Obama? My subjective opinion is that it has not.
Maybe the yacht-building business will pick up.
Use of the word "hate" to denote disagreement or derision just dilutes the meaning of the word. Hate is a very, very strong emotion. There was no such emotion in nerzog's comment.
D-"Why should we got to war in Iraq?"
R-"Why do you hate America?"
D-"I don't hate America, I just think we should question the validity of..."
R-"Do you want the terrorists to win"
R-"Of course not! But didn't the terrorists come from Saudi Arabia, where..."
D-"Why do you hate America?"
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Again, it's promoting a policy that's against their own self-interest.
May I ask why you're trying to push this desperate, weak talking point?
It aint' resonating outside your base, and your base has been frothing at the mouth for the last few years.
May I ask how you got to be so stupid, so brainwashed, and so utterly pathetic?
Thanks for the advice...but it's really not necessary. I'd even vote for Ron Paul or Joe Biden before I'd ever put a check mark by Obama's name.
We are in agreement for once, wesley. I would have voted for Joe Biden in a heartbeat. For all of the focus on his so-called "gaffes," Joe Biden is one of the smartest, most experienced foreign policy folks we have in the government.
In fact, my dream ticket would have been Chuck Hagel and Joe Biden, in any configuration.
Other than that, wesley, I still think you are a very uninformed little twerp who has no idea what you're talking about about 75% of the time.
A terrorist has hijacked wesley's flight, and has the plane in a dead vertical nose dive, heading straight for earth.
The captain fights off the baddie, taking the controls, and soon is pulling the plane out of that nose dive, and after a few seconds he now has it going about 20 degrees below horizontal, and rising.
Is the plane coming out of the nose dive ? Yes. Quickly enough to warrant helping to keep the terrorist restrained, and letting the pilot continue ?
Wesley's subjective opinion would be "No", the terrorist should be given another chance.
I was not implying that wesley would wholeheartedly support the terrorist. That would involve taking a firm stand, which would make it difficult to be as dismissive and condescending to everything equally, or to LOL at anybody who takes a stand. But if you wanted to blindly rubber-stamp the pilot, you go ahead, if that makes you feel good.
Like most "independents", "libertarians" and whatever else right wingers call themselves on the internets,, he would suggest that both the pilot and the terrorist had been entrenched in the cockpit too long, and they should both be thrown out.
Then he would, in a very non-commital way, recommend somebody for the job who resembles the terrorist much more closely than the pilot.
I wonder why there are such an alarming number of "BINGO!"s and "Correctamundo!"s between wesley and Jimmy.
Still haven't been able to figure out the quote box, huh?
Painfully Stupid - Fox Sheeple and some of show hosts (have to give some of them credit they can't be all be painfully stupid to massage the numbers/distort the facts the way the do).
I, Sean Hannity, dropped out of school and have a very limited knowledge beyond what my handlers type onto my papers for me... but I don't use a TELEPROMPTER!
Seems to me that if sean ever lost his job with fox that he could find suitable employment filling up hotair balloons.
Obama's record has been terrible. Remember when he promised that he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term? LOL...
By the way, Jesus was a community organizer. He got the same sort of treatment from people just like you. Hmm...
Sociopathic goblins seem to be taking over the GOP base.
People like wesley are both victims of a Puritan work ethic gone awry, and perpetrators of the most pernicious of lies. If they can't blame poor people for being poor, then they have to face the fact that attaining wealth is not a matter of hard work and sacrifice, but a question of birth and chance. That puts their dreams out of reach, which is as soul-crushing a reality check as any wingnut could ever endure. I feel sorry for/hate wesley for his obvious efforts of ego-protection in denigrating the poor to bolster his own sense of self-worth. He's garbage.
I grew up in an area with a pretty wide demographic economically, some of the richest and poorest areas of the nation within a few miles, and generally pretty conservative. I see this attitude mostly from those who were born well-off, and deep down know that they're doing better than they deserve to.
And my correction- it wasn't wesley, but his fellow sociopath Little Lord Fauntleroy who called our troops "freeloaders".
N'est-ce pas is correct. Jesus Christ was the ultimate community organizer and he got treated like dirt by the Pharisees and the government. Sound familiar?
Neighborhood block watch leaders, boy scout leaders, church leaders, heads of police athletic leagues and YMCA/YWCA organizations are all community organizers too.
Personally, I think republicans just hate the idea of community in general. It meshes with their worship of wealth, and praising of selfishness and greed as virtue.
More and more, despite whatever your position on taxes or gay marriage may be, it comes down to a basic philosophical premise; do you believe human beings are capable of living and working together peacefully and productively, or are all humans adversaries meant to exploit and destroy each other in the name of accumulation of material wealth and power.
I'd agree with you, as long as you're talking about the followers, not the leaders. Republican leaders love them some community organizing, as long as it's their community.
The wealthy, corporations, right wing PACs... all very organized and collectivist. Look at Citizens United, that's almost a synonym for "Community Organized".
They're smart enough to know that there's power in numbers, and that they can't take on the other 99% of America if they're organized.
So they convince the weak and impotent, the failures, that it's "manly" and "patriotic" to go it alone, to not be organized or united.
And chumps like wesley and Ravin' fall for it. And they think that the reason their lives suck is that some people who are just slightly worse off than they are are too organized. And the GOP leaders sit back and laugh.
Then I heard some wingnut on talk radio with a deep southern drawl, and it was only when he slurred it out that I got the "word search" angle-
( I know, it's a stretch, but I didn't get any of the Race-carders with it the first time, thought I'd give it another shot) ;0)
Ok, I will. You think they'll really know whether you have an explanation or not ?
now, what am i wearing? boo!
Interesting that james waited until just before quitting time to finally address the subtext today. Until now he managed to concern himself exclusively with arguing nonsense about the subject at hand.
Which makes your dismissal of my "stretch" irrelevant. If you can't even make up a more rational explanation, then mine is the most plausible at this point.
Thanks for the help.
Michelle Bachman syndrome strikes again. It is astonishing just how stupid james is
I can understand a public figure being put on the spot, and not wanting to be cornered, or to have to use the incriminating "no comment". But it's still strange to me that people ( and it really seems to be the domain of wingnuts) will voluntarily go to a website to express their opinions, but shrivel up when asked for their opinion.
I'll admit, I fell for it a few times. I was naive enough, before meeting so many Foxbots, that I would give people the benefit of the doubt, assuming that if they entered a conversation, that they wanted to have an honest conversation. It took me a while to understand that you have to watch wingnuts, like toddlers, every second.
It goes like-
Hey wingnut, do you prefer pancakes or waffles?
That's an interesting question, and there are a lot of schools of thought. That would be a good topic for conversation.
No, I'm asking which you prefer.
Polls show that there's a lot of disagreement. A lot of people like pancakes, but not all do.
No, you, which do you prefer?
I can't speak for anybody else.
No, YOU. Do you prefer pancakes or waffles ?
Look, I'm not playing your games. Why don't you figure it out?
No, I was going to make breakfast. Do you want pancakes or waffles?
I'm tired of your trolling. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
Poor does not equal layabout, but if you actually lifted a finger to help once in awhile you might know that.
Let me guess, you're either in the 1% or firmly expect to be there in 5 years?
You are a punk. Obama got things done with those you call layabouts. Now if he had to work with pathetic parasites like YOU that would have been a much harder job.
One reason that the deficit was not cut in half was because Obama insisted that the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan be carried on budget and not be tacked onto the Federal Credit Card (the National Debt) as his predecessor had done. If the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan had been carried on budget, the deficit under Bush would have been measured in the trillions.
Keep up, RavenRog. Your posts show that you have no idea what's going on around you. Just because some faux conservative told you that what you posted was true, doesn't make it true and doesn't make you a conservative to repeat it.
Therefore, those losses were under BUSH policies. Try reading a real newspaper once in a while and turn off Fox. Then you won't sound so stupid.
It's unprecedented, I tell you!!!!
I do get a kick out of InSannity and Off-the-Mark Levin talking about "real" unemployment numbers. When they were trying to prop up poor George Bush, and squeeze any tidbit of positive out of bad news, did they ever mention that number? Of course not.
A recent caller to InSannity's radio show managed to conflate (A.) The deficit they blame Mr. Obama for; (B.) TARP and (C.) The stimulus package as if it were one number. InSannity lap'd it up.
His jarring ignorance and lack of education shine through. You'd think for all the time he's had since Ailes plucked him out of college radio obscurity he might have learned something.
He actually believes that no democrat, especially Obama can "run on their record" and conversely thinks that republicans and teabaggers will have a free lunch.
In his tiny brain, when republicans lie their way into office it's the "will of the people." But when their awful legislation gets them recalled it's a union plot.
With a face for radio and a whiny nasal voice for the deaf, I'm puzzled why he has a broadcasting career, but I guess it's not everyday Roger Ailes finds someone with their head so far up their own rear end.
Gee I don't know.
Maybe use any objective metric for economic growth.
Perhaps my favorite was when he was hosting an insurance executive and he played a clip of President Obama saying, about the insurance industry, "I'm not saying you're bad people..." and inSeannity turned to his guest and said, "the president just said you're a bad guy...".
For the next 24 hours or so the Reichwhiners were all claiming that President Obama called the insurance industry "bad guys" even though he had explicitly said the opposite. And they believe it to this day largely because inSeannity lies.