[TomGuy]

Just wait till around September. The economy will be EXPLODING and the rate will said to be at 6.9%

I have been saying that for months. And it isn't that far-fetched. They can just manipulate the numbers down 0.2 to 0.4 per month and they will be within reach of the magic 6.9%.

All they need is a compliant BLS to manipulate the numbers and a compliant MSM to report the good news.

And, if they can keep the real inflation numbers seemingly under control*, they can avoid the trifecta Carter was hit with: Joblessness, economic disaster, and inflation.

--

*There has already be so much product shrinkage that stores have had to purchase new shopping carts with narrower slats to keep the shrunk products from falling through onto the floors. :)

[Road Warrior ‘04]

All they need is a compliant BLS to manipulate the numbers and a compliant MSM to report the good news.

Check & check! They already have both!

[1rudeboy]

You need to be careful with the word, “real.” Shrinking a package’s size is one way a producer can hide a price increase, but the BLS still counts it as inflation.

[newzjunkey]

Bush had 5.3% unemployment in Sept '04 and Dems, with the press, said it was the worst recovery since Herbert Hoover and Kerry hammered on a "jobless recovery."

Obama knows he needs to get the official number down further and that will be the goal over the next 240 days. As you said, it's blatant manipulation and one of the risks of the GOP pushing only on economics. They won't have the benefit Clinton did in 1991 where people where angry and didn't believe the recovery had started even though it had.

He's happy to push gas prices now and see them back down in time for the election as well. His hope is to run again a "do nothing Congress." To do that he needs to create the illusion of favorable trends so he can then say his opponents are slowing down the recovery which is so strong, so assured they can only try to hold it back for political gain.

It's a sham but it's his best argument and the Democrats, along with complicit media, are masters of message manipulation. They know perception is reality and don't care about the facts, just the story they can sell.

Finally Obama knows he's got the race card to pull out to make this an affirmative action reelection rather than by the standard of, for example, a President John Kerry.

Objectively he doesn't deserve a second term but unlike other incumbents in his position, he has enough left in his bag of tricks to win.