Posted on 10/22/2004 10:24:36 PM PDT by mafree
With the presidential campaign heading into its final stretch, Wisconsin continues to pick up jobs more rapidly than most key battleground states.
Employment figures released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics paint a complex picture of the swing states, showing job growth since December but, in most cases, job losses over the course of the Bush presidency.
That's true of Wisconsin, too, but the state has fared better than most of its tossup counterparts.
Among 11 intensely contested swing states, only rapidly growing Nevada has added jobs at a faster rate this year than Wisconsin. And the number of new jobs here - 59,200 - trailed only Pennsylvania and Florida, states with much larger populations.
"Wisconsin has had a pretty good year," said Tim Adams, policy director for the Bush campaign. "There are a few states in the union that have had better, but as far as the battleground states are concerned, Wisconsin, from our perspective, has had a very solid year."
The perspective from Sen. John Kerry's campaign, not surprisingly, is quite different. There, a spokesman emphasized the job losses in the state's manufacturing sector since Bush took office.
"Wisconsin has fared better than other states," said Justin Hamilton, the campaign's Milwaukee spokesman, "but when you have 65,000 manufacturing jobs lost, you know that you have a long way to go to get where you need to be."
Bureau of Labor Statistics data actually show a loss of 68,000 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin since January 2001. The state has gained 14,000 factory jobs since December - first among the battleground states analyzed.
Most of those states have lost jobs overall since Bush took office, with the losses particularly acute in Ohio. But Florida, New Mexico and Nevada have shown net gains - in Nevada's case, an increase of 9%.
What matters to voters when they consider the economy, however, is another question. Some experts on voting behavior, in fact, said economic issues are being trumped by Iraq and terrorism in this election.
Voters, when asked, tend to say the economy is their leading concern, "but I'm not convinced that's because it really is," said Thomas M. Holbrook, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The "basic judgment" will come on the war on terror, which might favor Bush, and the Iraq war, which could favor Kerry, he said.
John Dinan, an associate professor of political science at Wake Forest University, said much of the same thing.
He pointed to the 2000 election, when analysts using economic models predicted an easy victory for Democratic candidate Al Gore. Clearly, Dinan said, other factors were at play. And this year, with concerns such as terrorism hanging over the country, the influence of non-economic factors should be even greater.
Thomas E. Patterson, a political scientist at Harvard University, said surveys there had shown the economy and Iraq to be of equal importance to voters. But the people who view Iraq as the key issue feel it more intensely, he said.
"I think Iraq has really been what's kind of made people perk up and say this is a big one," Patterson said.
As Kerry emphasizes what has happened to the economy since Bush took office, and Bush points to the stronger performance this year, Holbrook said economic conditions don't clearly favor one candidate or the other. He said voters weighing the economy in their decisions were more likely to focus on the last year or so. But Patterson said the recent gains might be muted in voters' eyes by the earlier record.
"When you're coming up from the bottom and you add 10,000 jobs in a big state, it's kind of hard to feel that," he said.
Bump
Lurch has some 'splainin' to do here
Spread the word on the internet!
Post on internet boards AND e-mails!
Kerry's Dishonorable Discharge
CHANGED by Carter's Executive Order 4483
http://federalistpatriot.us/current/
The whole 42:09 Stolen Honor online FREE right now! E-mail it NOW!
http://www.buttondepress.com/BostonManifesto/stolenhonor.wmv
Stolen Honor nails Kerry and the VVAW
and how they lied at Winter Soldier.
And how Kerry lied to the US Senate in 1971
And how Kerry and his pack of liars caused our POW's to suffer!
Kerry and the DNC cannot stop
EVERYONE on the internet from seeing this!
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Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick
The Milwaukee Urinal Septical already laid the groundwork:
Employment figures released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics paint a complex picture of the swing states, showing job growth since December but, in most cases, job losses over the course of the Bush presidency.
The perspective from Sen. John Kerry's campaign, not surprisingly, is quite different. There, a spokesman emphasized the job losses in the state's manufacturing sector since Bush took office. "Wisconsin has fared better than other states," said Justin Hamilton, the campaign's Milwaukee spokesman, "but when you have 65,000 manufacturing jobs lost, you know that you have a long way to go to get where you need to be."
Patterson said the recent gains might be muted in voters' eyes by the earlier record. "When you're coming up from the bottom and you add 10,000 jobs in a big state, it's kind of hard to feel that," he said
Hey there,
Do you know where I can see the debate between John O'Neill and John Kerry from the early 70s?
I really would like to see it.
P.S. to everyone - President-Elect John Kerry. Did that scare you? GOOD! Now Go Vote Regardless of the Polls!!!
Willie Green must be deeply saddened.
I don't know off hand.
Perhaps a google search can help?
Along with Tom Daschle.
Boy, THAT would be a first! /s LoL!
Well, You can be sure he'll try.
ROTFLMAO!!!
Your showing your seasoned tenure with FR! ; )
Who really cares whether they lost jobs over the last 3.75 years. The important thing is that the numbers are getting better. If things are improving why make a change ?
Does it make sense to risk a good thing now because of losses from 3 years ago ?
Now the President needs to get on the stump and tell all the battleground states that John Kerrys plan to cut 100,000 government contractors and to roll back the tax cuts to small business owners will cause roughly 1 million people to lose their jobs. If you want to lose your job vote for Kerry should be the theme... Will you lose your job over the promise of job increases. Exactly how many jobs and what type will be created under a Kerry admin? Nobody knows.. it is another empty promise.
If America paid attention to the facts Kerry's plan of gutting the corporate loopholes that have companies sending jobs overseas will turn into a repeal of NAFTA and if that happens all the insourced jobs will go away too. If we don't outsource we won't get the benefits of insource.
Kerry's economic plan spells disaster for American economic recovery.
Note: This is a RealMedia stream. If you already have the RealMedia player installed, it should work. I personally would rather have a root canal than install Real's software on my computer, as I think it's nasty spyware. So I use RealAlternative.
You do what you like.
Thanks for locating and linking all these antiKerry resources.
.
And don't forget this on the jobs front---
Handout concerning Kerry's association with outsourced Heinz factories
Posted by lea
On 10/23/2004 9:00:54 AM PDT · 4 replies · 105+ views
We have made a handout concerning John Kerry's association with Heinz's outsourced factories. You are welcome to copy and paste it into a word document and give it out at factories, door-to-door, etc. It takes the front and back of one page and you'll want to reformat it for presentation. We have just over a week to reach people. KERRY WANTS JOBS TO STAY IN THE USA??? John Kerry is married to Teresa HEINZ Kerry, heiress to the HEINZ Corporation. Heinz’s own website touts, “Heinz is the most global U.S.-based food company, with a world-class portfolio of powerful brands holding...
Naturally, the sKerry campaign tries to take the sweetener out of the lemonade. The massive job losses were (are) due to NAFTA & GAT, brought in under the Clinton realm (?).
The job gains since can be attributed to the Bush tax rebate, among other fine moves by his administration.
ALTTWISI.
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