Free Republic

Recovery? Er, no . . . Gauging the economic performance of a president is a tricky thing for a lot of reasons, not least of which is the fact that so many statistics sound like apples-to-apples but really aren’t (like the U3 unemployment rate for example, which doesn’t tell you the change in labor force participation), and the fact that politicians cherry-pick statistics that don’t always mean what they want you to think they mean (like “jobs created”). There is also this: Much of what happens in the economy is not controlled by politicians. That’s a hard one to swallow...

Journalist Ron Suskind is one-stop shopping for Bush administration castaways. But what if John DiIulio -- Suskind gave him a platform in Esquire magazine in 2002 to call the administration "the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis" -- and Paul O'Neill had been shopping a conservative critique of Bush? Would Suskind have cracked open his notebook? Not likely. Few events excite liberal journalists more than the inevitable defection of an "insider" from a Republican administration, provided that the defector is a liberal who is telling the media what it wants to hear. What interests the Suskinds are not conservative defectors but...

<p>Presidential hopeful John Kerry blasted President George Bush in a San Francisco speech today, saying the administration's policies are harming California's economy, weakening environmental protections and leaving millions of residents without health care.</p> <p>In California for the state Democratic Convention in Sacramento this weekend, Kerry addressed the Commonwealth Club of California, tailoring his speech to voters in a state that has been buffeted by the recession and faces a huge budget deficit.</p>