Rachel Maddow: 'Bikini Graph' Shows U.S. Jobs Bush vs. Obama

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 10:48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHZRWGft7s4   Posted on YouTube: April 03, 2010 By YouTube Member: StartLoving3 Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 03, 2010 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 4654

 
MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show - April 2, 2010: The Bikini Graph and today's jobs gain report.

[Lithos]

1. Left, Right or Center you have got to admit...

Damn straight!

[GreenTea]

2. Make a copy of the graph-keep it in your pocket-it will become useful-since we all run into

republican morons when we least expect it....

The same republican morons who believe everything Fox news, hate radio as well as every republican lie and the amazing amount of flat-out made up stories by the slimy republicans.

[zenprole]

3. Reality Check

This is the worst kind of pandering, using the asteroid strike numbers of 2008 to put lipstick on the gross corporate servitude of current policy - sorta like using Sarah Palin's idiocy to justify Arne Duncan's rape of the nation's school systems. Rachel is sharp, but this is shameful promotion of the status quo in an economy still verging on collapse.

BTW, the 'we lost fewer jobs' logic reminds me of a joke after the ValuJet crash in Florida years ago.
Q: Why did alligators stop eating ValuJet corpses?
A: They were full.

Alas, Goldman Sachs is insatiable...sleep tight, America!

[bhikkhu]

4. I disagree

It is, in fact, simply a direct response to the vile posturing of the repugs who wrecked the economy in the first place. You can be dissatisfied with current conditions and still refuse to eat what the right is shovel-feeding. I wouldn't take Rachel out of context.

[Mithreal]

17. Good news is good news for those who have benefited.

[Moostache]

6. The first step to getting out of the hole is to stop digging...

I agree that the job loss rate slowing is not time to break out the champagne and caviar and throw a bash, but given the free-fall trajectory of the economy in December of 2008 I think it IS important to get the right people saddled with causing this mess.

The Republicans are masters at blaming others for their messes and the current Congress is doing everything they can to lay their own turd on Obama's doorstep. Their lackeys at Faux Gnus are likewise experts in propaganda and flat out lying. If the left does not make a bigger deal of this than maybe it legitimately deserves, they run the risk of the people who are still waiting for recovery and a new economy growing jaded and actually deciding to vote out the Dems in November and re-installing total gridlock in Washington. If you think that Obama got very little done in his first year, just imagine how little would be done if the Pukes get back the House and the Senate...hell, if that happens, the entire House should just as well take a 24-month hiatus because there will not be one damn bill passed and signed into law in that case.

I can see many things in the Obama administration that are good starts. The ultimate decision on his success or failure will be written by what follow up actions he takes and how well he uses this improving (if ever so slightly) situation to sell bigger changes down the road. Without a positive spin on these starts, he will never even get the chance, and if THAT happens, then god help us all!

[Chulanowa]

7. Current policy?

Find me a point where current policy is a step down from previous policy. Please. I fucking beg you to do so.

Look, I understand that good news under Obama pisses you off. A good portion of DU is there with you, they can't fucking stand when Obama gets good news. But do try to stay at least partially hinged to reality.

[Mithreal]

16. Your point is, better than Bush? Well done.

1st commandment: Protect his image to keep it holy.

Good news pisses off or maybe you are experiencing a thinking deficit. You really should get some rest, I hear it is contagious.

[Chulanowa]

23. My point is, he's not Jesus

It's ironic that people like you evidently expect miracles of him, and then claim that those who support him are the ones seeing him as "holy."

he's better than Bush. In fact, he's better than many presidents. He's also worse than a few - he's certainly no FDR. However the presidential spectrum between "good" and "bad" is really pretty narrow, with only a few exceptions, such as GWB falling past the general extreme.

I extended a challenge to show how policy under this administration is noticeably worse than previous administrations. You haven't provided. Nor has the poster I was responding to. So, sir, maybe you should take your outrage, your straw men, and your stupid blandishments, and return then to Little green Footballs where they belong?

[Mithreal]

24. You are sticking with that? Asking for evidence Obama is worse than Bush?

Oh, previous admins is the challenge, not just Bush?

Miracles? It was a miracle that the majority of Americans supported anything and yet he still found ways not to deliver, odd, no? Nothing miraculous about all those lefty proposals rejected by Obama, that was PURE politics.

You want an answer to your silly question, Obama education policy. Oh, but that isn't good enough. Keep an eye on the journals and the stories on education "reform" if you are looking for details. What's that? There are others? Yes indeed, but I am offering one.

Tantrums are laughable and invite hostile responses. A lot of what you say only makes sense when the arguments of your perceived opposition are corrupted and misrepresented. And accusing me of logical fallacies? Right. I didn't know folks "like you" even understood what those are.

You got fight, I like that about you, but stop with the nonsense.

[joycean]

8. Reality for you is where?

These are numbers, plain and simple. Unless you think the numbers on the graph are wrong, I don't understand your criticism. At the end of the graph, a net jobs gain is shown, which would seem to undermine your glib. 'Gross corporate servitude'? That's what passes for reasoned economic analysis and debate where you live? Cause where I live, it passes for sophomoric. And also crazy.

[Mithreal]

18. If it is just about the numbers being good news, fair enough.

I understand your post better than some of the other hostile responses to this DU'er. I think the post you responded to makes more sense if you take into account the fundamentals of our economy are still broken for the vast majority of us, but I am hoping the other DU'er responds to your post.

[joycean]

20. I don't think the good news concerning the numbers is overstated.

In this case I think the rhetoric matches the reality. These are numbers, which are undisputed and agenda-less.

The language Rachel Maddow uses in this segment is reserved. Maddow doesn't claim that this data means the recession is over, or that there are no longer people out there suffering from economic upheaval. Words like 'beginning', 'encouraging', and phrases like 'crawling out of' and 'pretty notable' are used instead of 'fantastic' or 'unbelievable'.

Maddow says: "Now look, the economy is clearly still struggling, we've still got a long way to go to make up for all of the jobs that were lost over the last two years. But this is a step in the right direction, right?...Things are getting slightly better. It is a slow process and an unsteady one to be sure, but things are getting better."

Her guest Ezra Klein is also reserved in his language, saying:
"One thing I think that we should make clear is that the issue of how good the economy is doing is not a Washington issue, it's not something you can message around really easily. Democrats can't tell you that the economy is good if you've got 10 percent unemployment come November, and Republicans can't tell you that it's really bad if your neighbors are getting a job and you're seeing the unemployment numbers go down."

{edited for misc punctuation errors}

[Mithreal]

21. +1 Agreed. It is too early for exuberance.

[Enthusiast]

10. The point is the trend.

Turning around what could have been, could still become, a second Great Depression, in this way is a remarkable achievement. Proof that, contrary to GOP talking points, the Stimulus Bill was well thought out. Again, an incredible achievement considering constant RW obstructionism and M$M attacks.

I agree about the nature of an economy based on derivatives instead of manufacturing actual physical products that used to sustain the economy. Something fundamental must be changed. That is regulate the financial services industry to prevent this from happening again.

[LiberalFighter]

12. When people are going back to work that is not an economy verging on collapse.

[Mithreal]

15. Tell that to the still jobless and underemployed. Job numbers can be manipulated and half-truths.

The middle class was nice while it lasted.

Fundamentals.

[Mithreal]

14. We are not out of the woods yet.

Keep your chin up, some here are so attached to their guy that every glimpse of hope satisfies them he is on the right track and insulates him from criticism. They must believe you despise any good news or the man himself, because to imagine any different would shatter the image and image is everything.

The fundamentals of our economy are still broken.

Protect the fabulously wealthy at all costs, too much of that still going around.

As the latest in a series of meetings between President Barack Obama and the business community, the President will host the CEOs of leading companies at tonight’s White House Dinner at 6:45 p.m. in the State Dining Room

An Obama administration official announced a partial list of attendees Monday including: Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) CEO Mike Duke, Verizon Communications (VZ) CEO Ivan Seidenberg, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, Honeywell International Inc. (HON) CEO Dave Cote, Eastman Kodak (EK) CEO Antonio Perez, , Xerox Corp. (XRX) CEO Ursula Burns and PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi.

The dinner comes a day before Obama addresses the Business Roundtable, association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies. Several of the corporate leaders, including Seidenberg, Cote, Perez and Duke, are members of Business Roundtable’s executive committee.

http://www.execdigital.com/CEO-s-to-join-President-Obama-for-dinner-at-the-White-House--_41723.aspx

These folks do a lot of socializing, I just did a quick search.



"My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."

I hope Obama stops getting between the people with pitchforks and the fabulously wealthy, but why should he, it pays well.

[ProgressOnTheMove]

5. The only yard sign needed forf 2010. +1...

Title: "It's that 'hopey changey thing.'" Yeah, working our alright. Let's get this clip out to everyone in the universe too, that'll about do it.

[joycean]

9. I enjoyed that clip when I first saw it

earlier tonight. I especially enjoyed the part where Rachel gets up to slap the last bar of the graph on the board, and is wearing her 501's. Awesome.

[Enthusiast]

11. Rachel is a darling!

Not at all like the examples of fake plastic bimbo-women we see on Faux.

[Lindsey]

13. I love it that she wears jeans under her business suit blazers!

What can I can, I'm gay and she's HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yea, she's really smart too :-)

[Enthusiast]

19. I'm a hetero male

and I think she is hot too. The smart makes her hotter still.

[Mithreal]

22. Honest question, what caused the numbers to head toward the positive?

Elections do matter. A lot of the economy is due to sentiment and irrational. We all know what happened at the bikini bottom.

Was it some combination of hope and actual policy? If you respond, what is the evidence for your answer?

I believe the fundamentals are still broken and not being addressed.

If we were effective activist types, we fellow DU'ers could come up with a list of what needs to be done to get this country back on track and hold accountable our representatives. After the fact we could be honest about what the President and Congress did to support our agendas, rather than focus so much on arguing whether we should be satisfied with what we were offered or whether it was ever enough. It would be clear where they fell short and proper acknowledgment could be given for the successes.

I have asked this several times, will keep doing it. I am not a very good writer. Can someone who is, please consider a weekly journal that provides a sort of report card on the President and Congress, that is honest about the failing and successes, what was done and what was left undone.