Edwards Seizes on Job Numbers in Bid to Oust Bush

yahoo news ^ | 2/6/04 | Jeremy Pelofsky

[shhrubbery!]

Politics - Reuters

Edwards Seizes on Job Numbers in Bid to Oust Bush

13 minutes ago

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By Jeremy Pelofsky

BLACKSBURY, Va. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards (news - web sites) on Friday seized on the latest economic data that showed fewer jobs were created last month than expected to press his campaign to oust the Bush administration.

Reuters Photo

Latest headlines:

·	Kerry Nominations, Donations Coincided AP - 12 minutes ago

·	Edwards Seizes on Job Numbers in Bid to Oust Bush Reuters - 13 minutes ago

·	Kerry's Front-Runner Status Revives Book AP - 16 minutes ago

Election 2004

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"The increase in jobs did not go up as much as people expected ... yet again a continuation of the loss of manufacturing jobs," he told several hundred supporters on the campus of Virginia Tech.

"Providing for America's security also means providing for security of American jobs, we need to keep jobs here in this country," the North Carolina senator said.

The U.S. economy created just 112,000 new jobs in January, far fewer than the 150,000 new jobs analysts had expected. The department revised the December figure to an increase of 16,000 instead of just 1,000.

Edwards has been zigzagging his way across an ice-covered southern Virginia and northern Tennessee rounding up supporters ahead of primary contests in those states on Tuesday, stressing his plan to create more jobs. Despite the weather conditions, hundreds showed up at rallies in Blacksbury and at a high school in Wytheville.

Edwards, who won his first primary this week in South Carolina, is trying to establish a Southern base in his effort to make himself the alternative to front-runner John Kerry (news - web sites) in the race to challenge President Bush (news - web sites) in November.

RAPS NAFTA

Edwards has repeatedly complained about more than one million manufacturing jobs that he says have been shipped overseas where cheaper labor is available since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He also criticized the widening federal deficits and fattening corporate bottom lines while blue-collar workers are being laid off.

"This economic policy is great for corporate bottom lines but it is bad for our workers and spits in the face of our values," Edwards said.

He has proposed tax credits for companies that keep manufacturing jobs in the United States as well as the creation of a venture capital fund to assist hard-hit areas.

But before launching into his standard campaign speech, Edwards had an unusual request for a handful of the College Republicans who showed up at the rally -- to hold up their Bush-Cheney signs.

After they tentatively did, Edwards shouted "That's whose leaving the White House come November," to sustained applause from the audience.

One Bush supporter criticized the North Carolina Democrat for bashing the North American Free Trade Agreement but voting in favor of permanent normal trade relations with China.

"He complains about the loss of textile jobs but if you didn't notice, he voted for permanent normal trade relations with China," said Beau Correll, a senior and head of the College Republicans.

Edwards' campaign also called the latest attack by rival candidate retired Gen. Wesley Clark (news - web sites) -- this time on health care for veterans -- "absurd." Clark has engaged in a sustained attack on Edwards in an effort to establish himself as the candidate to challenge Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts.

[shhrubbery!]

First the reporter uses the passive voice...

...economic data that showed fewer jobs were created last month than expected...['expected'? by whom?]

then he lists unnamed 'sources'...

... The U.S. economy created just 112,000 new jobs in January, far fewer than the 150,000 new jobs analysts had expected. ['analysts'? WHAT analysts?]

The he buries the good news deep in the text...

...The department revised the December figure to an increase of 16,000 instead of just 1,000. [Oh, just an upwards revision. Hardly newsworthy.]

The spin continues.

[bcoffey]

BLACKSBURY, Va. ???

The Hokies are gonna wonder where they're living!

If Reuters can't even get the name of the town right, you wonder what else is wrong with the article.

[js1138]

Used to be the stock market, but that went up. Now it's unemployment, but that is going down. Used to be Saddam, but now he's gone. Then it was WMD, and we shall see.

We shall see how the dems look when the mass graves are opened during the campaign. We shall see how the dems look when the Iraqis begin administering their own nation. (There is a reason why hildabeast doesn't want this to happen this summer.)

we shall see how the dems look when Osama and the remnants of his tribe are caught.

there is one thing Bush is good at and that is timing.

[shhrubbery!]

YEP, I noticed that too.

Was just going to include that in my further criticism of Mr. Pelofsky's writing skills. You beat me to it.

But here's another:

"That's whose leaving the White House come November..."

That's "who's," Mr. Journalist, not "whose."

[Owen]

Economists and 'analysts' are liberals and may be affecting the expectations game. The Administration should release its own expected jobs numbers each month and low ball them, just as analysts are highballing them.

Then the headlines will always read "better than expected".

[gov_bean_ counter]

Republican response should be:

Given the incredible disruption caused by much higher levels of snow and ice in the Northeast and Midwest during January, these employment numbers are simply amazing.

[shhrubbery!]

We shall see how the dems look when the mass graves are opened during the campaign. We shall see how the dems look when the Iraqis begin administering their own nation. (There is a reason why hildabeast doesn't want this to happen this summer.)...there is one thing Bush is good at and that is timing.

And then there's the trial of Saddam coming up. Though we don't know if that will be before the election. No doubt the Left will try to postpone that too to try to hide his atrocities from the world.

[GeorgiaMike]

Here's a recipe for creating more jobs: blame corporate America, pander to labor unions to make labor more expensive, force companies to spend extra capital upgrading their factories to comply with tougher enviroment laws, raise taxes to take more money out of consumers' hands, demand small businesses be burdened with providing health care for their employees.

Brought to you by the party that thinks the New Deal ended the Great Depression.

[sirshackleton]

Yup......I guess if job creation doesn't meet all these phantom expectations, it's as if there weren't any jobs created at all.

[js1138]

Actually there are more jobs than they are counting. A lot of people, including myself, are now self-employed. Personally I enjoyed the security of a regular job, but I'm eating. If they counted the self-employed contractors, the job numbers would be half a million higher.

[JohnnyZ]

"The increase in jobs did not go up as much as people expected

Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Of course, the household survey showed a gain of almost 500,000 jobs, which is why the unemployment rate dropped to 5.6%.

[over3Owithabrain]

there is one thing Bush is good at and that is timing.

He sure as hell better be - I'm tired of the ass-kicking lately. The lies are spewing forth like vomit at a frat party, and the polls are sinking like a stone. Hope W has his trump cards ready to play.

[shhrubbery!]

Administrator, could you please correct the link for this article to

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040206/pl_nm/campaign_edwards_dc_35

Thanks.

[nathanbedford]

I thought job creation improved a thousandfold in one month!

The analysts are disappointed? 112, 000 plus 15, 000 adjustment from last month means they are worried over 23,000 from their "expectations?"

Please.

[mabelkitty]

Blue collar workers are supposed to turn into white collar workers.

3 million jobs out of 250 million people. Why is there "outrage?"

This is what happens when Democrats run lawyers and not economists.

[js1138]

Relax. There's no actual dem candidate yet. Bush will not ever return tit for tat in this. And with good reason. Remember how effective our shouting campaign was against clinton? Thats how the dems sound now.

All Bush has to do between now an November is stay calm, keep the peace, point out the obvious accomplishments of the last two years, point out the horrors of Saddam, and have ordinary luck with the economy.

The dems are shooting themselves in the foot on Iraq. By this fall there will be a flood of stories about the transformation of Iraq.

[LibWhacker]

There is only one question thug hugging, soft-on-crime liberals need to answer today: Aren't you secretly pleased with yourself now that Carlie Brucia is dead?

[shhrubbery!]

Heh. Well said. If only the vast masses of Democrat and "Independent" voters would read your recipe and get a clue.

[lelio]

Of course, the household survey showed a gain of almost 500,000 jobs

I'm trying to get my head around these numbers. According to post #5 there was a 496k increase in the household survey ... however 422k people entered the job market.

So does that mean that 496 - 422 = 74k jobs were created, taken up by the people already in the job market?

What's the cross section of the household survey members look like? Have they been in the workforce for a while? Just starting out? Who is hiring them? Are they going into self employment?

[colorado tanker]

Only on Planet Democrat could a drop in the unemployment rate and a gain of over 100,000 jobs be bad news.