For the last couple of years, I've witnessed the George W. Bush apologists try desperately to find any sign of good economic news as it relates to Christmas retail sales totals. Any piece of news that can be twisted to fit their propogand campaign is game.
For example, after Thanksgiving weekend this year, most of the reports showed that sales were not going to be great. Visa, however had a report that showed that charge account sales were up significantly over last year (during Thankgiving weekend). Soon, the right wing was able to get their media friends to report the Visa story. They obviously don't realize what's going on when charge account dept skyrockets. Their euphoria was soon squashed when Walmart started adjusting their projected sales totals downward.
Lately, they've been trying to tell us that _____ % of Christmas sales actually occur in JANUARY, when the gift certificates are redeemed, and people actually spend 2 or 3 times the amount of the gift certificate. "As soon as those gift certificates are redeemed, then we'll have proof that GWB's tax cuts for the rich have helped the economy.", they'll tell us.
It would be nice if we had a 'clearinghouse' of links to stories about how dissapointing Christmas sales were this year. That way, we would have the information at our fingertips just ready to be pulled out, when any of them try to claim that the sales are up, and that the economy is getting better.
Here's one link:
http://www.detnews.com/2004/business/0412/27/A01-42718.htm