You gotta hand it to the MSM. They never give up. Today’s example of extreme bias is this article written by Liz Sidoti with this headline:
GOP talk of vibrant economy rings hollow
She then goes on to detail a person sobbing about 3 dollar used boots and another guy having a hard time selling, well we don’t know what he is selling but he’s having a rough time of it trying to sell the stuff from a parking lot.
Used boots fetch $3 and old salt-and-pepper shakers bring in a buck at a makeshift flea market along Highway 27, presumably not what President Bush and Republicans have in mind when they herald a vibrant economy.
Times are “very good for the rich and very, very bad for the poor” who “can’t afford to live,” laments Larry Mitchell, 43, a now-and-then merchant peddling his wares recently in a submarine sandwich shop parking lot. He says the middle class is “having a hard time.”
In the Ohio River Valley, where people decry high gas prices, stagnant wages, lost jobs and factory closures, many don’t buy the claim that the economy is humming along.
Seven weeks before the midterm elections, the gulf between Bush’s perceptions and that of voters form the political backdrop across the country as well as in a region with several competitive House races. This area typically gets left out of national boom times and usually feels the pinch more than others during slowdowns.
The crux of her argument is that because a parttime goods seller is having a rough time selling goods no one wants and a flea market consumer doesnt like that they have to speed 3 bucks for shoes this all means the economy is failing.
She does state that 5.7 million jobs have been created and that the economy grew at a almost unheard rate of 5.6% in Quarter 1 but tries to downplay it because:
Nationally, the economy grew strongly at the beginning of this year but it has slowed, reflecting the toll of high energy prices and two-plus years of interest-rate pain from the Federal Reserve.
Yes, because growth for Quarter 2 went down to 2.9% this means the economy is failing. She states this is because of high energy prices but then states in the next sentence:
Gasoline and other energy prices now are falling and the Fed is expected to stay on the sidelines for a while after halting its rate-raising campaign last month.
Well duh. The price of energy typically goes down around this time of the year every year. As far as the interest rate hikes, they were being raised because of the rate of economic growth. Which is a good thing.
The real story in all this is that the Democrats are starting to understand that to beat the Republicans in November they have to beat down the economy. Doesn’t matter that our economy is growing, unemployment is down, inflation is down, disposable income is up…..they have to make people believe its all in the dump. And our MSM is out front in printing their propaganda.
But real economists can’t put the spin on it like Liz does. This report is from the AP also, 3 days ago:
Consumer confidence zoomed to a seven-month high as lower gasoline prices made people feel a lot better about the current economic climate and their own financial standing.
The RBC Cash Index, based on the results of the international polling firm Ipsos, showed confidence rebounding to 93.7 in early September.
That marked an improvement from August, when consumer confidence sank to a three-month low of 74.8. At that time, the toll of soaring energy prices was blamed for weighing on consumers’ psyches. The recent drop in energy prices, however, provided people with some relief and propelled confidence to its best reading since February.
“The drop in pump prices is very visible to consumers and seems to have a huge impact,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America’s Investment Strategies Group. “Consumers seem to view gasoline prices as a barometer to their overall well being.”
After surging past $3 a gallon in many areas, gasoline prices are now hovering around $2.62 a gallon nationwide, the Energy Department says.
Economists believe that price relief figured prominently in the upswing in consumers’ feelings about current economic conditions. This measure shot up to 118.8 in early September. That was up sharply from 92.1 in August and was the highest reading on record. Ipsos started the confidence index in 2002.
And today the Washington Times details what most already know. The economy is growing well and because of this the Republicans are polling well:
Republicans appear to be gaining on the Democrats in the 2006 midterm campaign because of growing confidence in the economy, falling gas prices and President Bush’s sustained political offensive on the terrorist threat, according to pollsters and campaign strategists.
James at Econbrowser also posted on the AP writers jumping at shadows to talk down the economy, complete with graphs.
The economy is doing quite well thank you. The tax cuts worked and this just gets under the skin of the liberals. Hell, pretty much everything is getting under the skin of the liberals these days. The war on terror is going well, the war in Iraq is going well, the economy is going well. Add in the fact the recent embarrassments they have had to endure over the Plame affair and their flip flopping on national security and it seems they are mighty pissed.
So their pissed and want everyone to know it. So out comes the old Democratic playbook, talk down the economy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some reporting on the homeless soon, maybe some on the elderly and medicare. They will pull out all the stops, including todays report which used anecdotes instead of hard data.
Pure propaganda.
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