The Sky Is Falling!

President Obama is going all-in on the first hand dealt to him. That does one of two things in a poker tournament- it doubles your chip stack (political capital) or it sends you out of the tournament (see you in four years). That's a heavy gamble to take with a nation. From Obama's press conference:

So what I'm trying to underscore is what the people in Elkhart already understand: that this is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill recession. We are going through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've lost now 3.6 million jobs, but what's perhaps even more disturbing is that almost half of that job loss has taken place over the last three months, which means that the problems are accelerating instead of getting better.

and

If there's anyone out there who still doesn't believe this constitutes a full-blown crisis, I suggest speaking to one of the millions of Americans whose lives have been turned upside down because they don't know where their next paycheck is coming from.

So, was 2008 the worst year since the Great Depression? Hardly.

Now, I like science rather than articles of faith. Show me the facts. Take a look at the Misery Index. You will see that 2008's numbers are actually better than the first year of Clinton's first term, better than all four years of George HW Bush's term, the first five years of Reagan's presidency, all four years of Carter's term, all three years of Ford's term, and three of the five Nixon years.

Obama is appealing to emotion, not facts. Rather than speaking to someone who has lost his job- something you can do any day of any year, of any decade, of any century- I'd rather look at the economy as a whole, as a nation, by judging the facts.

Now, if I have it straight, the Left likes to say that it prefers facts over faith, science over emotion. (See: 'global warming', etc.) Well, stick to it!

The definition of propaganda and 'assertion' are useful to review here, especially since Obama said the debate over whether or not to have a stimulus is 'over'.

Full disclosure: I don't know where my next paycheck is coming from. I have had one new job come in since October 1, where I like to keep a portfolio of 50-60. Hardly a time to panic, though. It's been a time to get my house in order, to position for the next opprtunities. But, if Obama directs you to talk to me, I'll tell you that he's full of shit. I spent my time when making money paying off my debt and lining up a savings- something everybody else should have done. It shouldn't be my problem if they blew their dough on entertainment, and failed to pay down debt and save. One's financial woes are self-created, beginning with how one chose to educate himself, continuing forward to the decisions they made in better times, including what they bring to the table as a potential employee, and whether or not one should run through their money, or rack up unsustainable debt, as though it wholly impossible that the money could stop.