President Barack Obama, walking back his assertion at a press conference the "private sector's doing fine," acknowledged Friday that "it is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine."
"That's why I spent yesterday, the day before yesterday, this past week, this past month, this past year talking about how we can make this economy stronger," Obama said in the Oval Office. "The economy is not doing fine. There are too many people out of work. The housing market is still weak, there are too many homes underwater."
In the press conference Friday morning, Obama touted job growth in the private sector of the economy, describing the public sector - state and local governments - as the weight dragging the economy.
"The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we created 4.3 million jobs over the last two, 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector's doing fine," Obama said. "Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don't have the same flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in."
source
He's got to convince people that the economy is good and that they have him to thank for it.
But then he's got to convince people that they are in trouble and that only his policies can help them out of it.
This is no condemnation of Obama, since everybody running for president does the same thing. But it's telling how little "what the economy really is like" matters in the rhetoric.
Edited at 2012-06-09 09:49 pm (UTC)