Unemployment and the President's re-election chances

Unemployment was 7.5% the month carter got voted out of office in 1980, and after hitting a height of 10.8%, Reagan got it down to 7.2% the day he won 49 states and routed Jimmy Carter’s sidekick.

The key point you have to keep in mind is that the reason why unemployment was shooting up in Jimmy’s last year was that he and Paul Volcker had the brilliant idea that the way to get rid of double digit inflation was to trigger double digit unemployment. THAT’S why people voted Jimmy Carter out. The awfulness was so bad that they developed a new term for it… Misery Index.

Of course, Jimmy had other problems- Looking ineffectual against Iran and Russia (kind of the way the Bamster looks ineffectual in Libya and Afghanistan). Spikes in the price of Gasoline because Jimmy didn’t like the oil industry. (Again… like Obama).

Jesus in a Go-Cart, man, this is kind of like a rerun of Jimmy Carter, except that no one is bringing back Disco. so we have that going for us.

Boy, it’s amazing how often you undercut your own position..

Yeah, like Bush did better, or McCain could have done better. Hardly.

Gas prices have been dropping, slowly and steadily, for months. Crawl out of your basement sometime…

Those figures are not the ones I saw on the bureau of labor statistics. Where are yours from? Oh, right. You can’t be expected to provide evidence for your claims.

Given that you are cherry picking by taking 1979 and not 1980, (You know, when America broomed that failure Carter out the door) you don’t have much room to talk.

Just be ready to cry in your beer when we broom Obama out, too.

It’s amazing how often you don’t consider an entire premise and focus on ONE LINE.

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Yeah, like Bush did better, or McCain could have done better. Hardly…
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Well, Bush DID do better. He toppled the Taliban, he toppled Saddam and put him on the end of a rope. As for McCain, I don’t think he’d deferred to FRANCE on the Libya thing.

Hey, it was 4.08 a gallon on Friday. That’s still unacceptably high for most Americans.
It went down for a week when he released the “emergency reserve”, but then it went right back up again.

FAIL.

No “cherry picking”. I presented the figures for 1979-1980.

Oh, brother…
[ol]
[li]The Taliban wasn’t the problem, it was al-Qaeda;[/li][li]Saddam wasn’t the problem either.[/li][/ol]

I know you get a jones for the Amerika Uber Alles meme, but international cooperation is better than the unilateral “you’re with us or against us” stance that your buddy promoted.

It’s been $3.69 for the past four weeks now where I live. That’s still higher than I’d like, but I live in the real world and I don’t expect the President to be able to fix everything with a snap of his fingers.

FAIL YOURSELF.

Yea, I’m just thrilled he tapped into the Strategic Reserve…The resulting effects of that still have me in complete awe :rolleyes:

And you think he should have done… what, exactly?

[listening expectantly to what will probably be an echoing silence…]

Why should the President be doing anything about gas prices?

Remind me, who was the head of Al Qaeda, and in fact masterminded 9/11, which as I recall happened on W’s watch? Whatever happened to him?

Yep. After a certain remove, a great many historical events, mightily divisive in their day, appear right and/or necessary.

Quit stonewalling and dragging his feet on gulf drilling permits.

[ul]
[li]Puts thousands of people back to work[/li]
[li]Adds more non-Mideast resources into the oil market[/li][/ul]

And for Og’s sake, get your mitts out of the Strategic Reserve. Weak attempts at political gain is not it’s purpose.

He’s already lifted the moratorium on off-shore drilling. That was October of last year. Funny, gas prices didn’t suddenly dip below $3.00 a gallon. Could it be that it really didn’t make that much difference at all? Gasp. Shudder.

And do you really think the oil companies are going to suddenly start hiring thousands of new people? When they can maximize profits by making the workforce they have produce 140% more for the same pay?

:smiley:

Actually, the real problem over there are regimes that see terrorists as an extention of their foreign policy. So, yeah, those guys are the problem.
.

Horseshit. Our allies, as this war proves, are pretty much worthless. Fat, bloated little socialist states with effeminate militaries that are ineffective. France and the UK have been going at Khadafi for months, and he’s still there.

.

I expect him not to eff it up worse by limiting our production, and starting wars that drive up the price of it.

Something my brother was kind enough to send me…

It’s called, “Keep the Change”

Stat Jan 2009 Now Change

Avg… Retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.83 $3.704 89.6%
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) $43…48 $105…02 167.7%
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) $38…74 $107…38 178.9%
Gold: London (per troy oz.) $853.25 $1,469.50 70.5%
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL $3.56 $6.33 78.1%
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL $9.66 $13…75 42.3%
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob $13…37 $35…39 164.7%
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7%
Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4%
Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7%
Real median household income (2008 v 2009) $50,112 $49,777 -0.7%
Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10) 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1%
Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10) 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2%
Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2%
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009) 13.2% 14.3% 8.3%
People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009) 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5%
U.S… Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings 5 9 n/a
Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10) 29.9 23.5 -21.4%
Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date) 140 164 17.1%
U.S… Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate 89.76 82.03 -8.6%
U.S… Money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4%
U.S… Money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) 8,310.9 8,852.3 6.5%
National debt, in trillions $10…627 $14…052 32.2%

No, the Libyan rebels have been going after Khadafi for months. France, the UK, AND the US have provided limited air and advisory support.

Oh, dear. I guess this will be the end result of eliminating DADT. Our entire armed forces reduced to limp-wristed pantywaists unable to overthrow any dictators we need to oust in the name of corporate profits – ahem, I meant, Truth, Justice and the American Way. Oh, Saint Ronnie, where are you when we need you?

:rolleyes:

Uh, guy, we should have squashed this guy like a bug by now.

Only took three weeks to topple Saddam. Only took a month to topple the Taliban.

Qadafi is not only still in power, but he’s regaining territory.

I thought this thread was about unemployment.