Misery Loves Company [Kerry's Scam]

Wall Street Journal ^ | Apr 13, 2004 | editorial

[The Raven]

As John Kerry showed yesterday, there is a way to make lemons out of lemonade: Mine government statistics to show that, all evidence of prosperity to the contrary, the country is actually going to hell in a hand basket. Voila -- the Kerry campaign's new "misery index," which allows the Democratic presidential challenger to paint George W. Bush as the reincarnation of Herbert Hoover.

[samtheman]

Mine government statistics to show that, all evidence of prosperity to the contrary, the country is actually going to hell in a hand basket.

I woke up this morning wondering if there are some dedicated RATS out there who are willing to "mine" the US economy the old-fashioned way: with explosives.

What's to prevent a fringe RAT from becoming a terrorist to influence the election (ala Spain)?

I'm not talking about people directly tied to Kerry's campaign. But there are a lot of severely disturbed RATS in the hate-Bush-first RAT population.

Am I being paranoid?

[dawn53]

Glenn Beck had a segment on this yesterday morning on his radio show.

He said if a candidate was allowed to get away with "cherry picking" what data you wanted to include in the misery index, anyone could make the number mean anything they wanted it too.

[Chi-townChief]

"By his measure, the Carter years supposedly saw a six-point improvement in the misery index, while under Ronald Reagan the U.S. fell back almost as far. Does anybody else remember it that way?"

I would wager that all of the lefties remember it that way.

[Peach]

I've been debating with the only leftist in our neighborhood and he absolutely refuses to believe that the economy is good and unemployment is the same average as it was during Clinton's presidency.

As a former president of Shell oil in the Middle East division, his hubris and downright ignorance is breathtaking.

Rush has it just right - what's good for America is bad for the Democrats. The leftists don't let the facts get in the way of their opinions.

[CPOSharky]

Any bets the components of Kerry's "misery index" will change over the months?

Of course, as events make the "index" look different (bad for rats, good for the president) it will have to be "updated" to "better reflect the actual conditions."

[OESY]

Misery Index Finger --

Probing Fate Without a Full Deck

"But the best proof that the Kerry index doesn't reflect reality is the way it distorts history.
By his measure, the Carter years supposedly saw a six-point improvement in the misery index,
while under Ronald Reagan the U.S. fell back almost as far. Does anybody else remember it that way?"