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This is the TRADITIONAL defintion:

misery index An index combining the unemployment rate and inflation rate. The index is used to measure the political significance of the condition of the economy, as well as consumer confidence.

That has ALWAYS been the definition of the misery index for as long as I have been hearing about it.

HOWEVER, John Kerry is NOT using that definiton of "the misery index." He has made a new one up all for himself.

You see: if he used the traditional definition, it would look GREAT for Bush, so he had to "revise it".

Everybody who is surprised raise your hand.

My hands are firmly planted down at my sides. :o)

Kerry is trying to create misery to get himself elected. He is despicable. (And stupid.........who wants to go back to the days of Jimmy Carter and re-create the misery index anyway??

Thanks, Truth for a GREAT set of pictures!

The President WILL prevail over these lies and attacks because the RIGHT is on his side, and he is on the side of the RIGHT!!

So is this what he is doing: telling everyone that the economy is miserable, the job market is miserable there fore we are miserable? And by hammering away at this with the help of the media pretty soon people actually believe they are miserable? (Uh oh, here comes that tick in my eye again!)

Though it has been cited in practically every national (and many local) elections for more than a generation, this misery index was apparently not good — or, perhaps, complicated — enough for the Kerry camp. So they collected seven data points (median family income, college tuition, health-care costs, gas prices, bankruptcy rates, homeownership rate and private-sector job growth) to make their own index. All but one of these indicators — home ownership — have fallen over the past three years.

"We were trying to pick the kitchen-table issues," explained Gene Sperling, chief of Mr. Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, and an architect of Mr. Kerry's economic plans. "We were trying to look at what are the things that most affect families' pocketbooks every day."

This newfangled misery index, in case you weren't confused yet, is measured in the opposite way from its better-known progenitor — a higher number means less, not more, misery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/12/politics/trail/12TRAIL-MISERY.html?ex=1082433600&en=ca921b179fab5471&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

"Everybody who is surprised raise your hand."

While I was in the car today, I heard a seminar caller, on Rush, with Roger Hancock as the guest host. He was so stupid as to first identify himself as being FROM A UNIVERSITY, and then while he was articulating the NEW misery index, used the inflation of tuition at UNIVERISITIES as an example! I kinda liked the way Roger handled him!

RE: Misery index

In one of the short blurbs I heard today, they said the misery index would be very low today--the lowest since (I think but I'm not sure) 1981.

And did you all hear this abou "Tax Freedom Day"? That's the day in the year when they figure if all of your salary would have gone to taxes, it would be paid off. Anyway, last year Tax Freedome Day was May 2nd; this year it is April 11th! That's the first time since 1991 it's gone "backwards"!

(I'm trying to be like Dr.Deb with her poll results, with my encouraging statistics!)

HOWEVER, John Kerry is NOT using that definiton of "the misery index." He has made a new one up all for himself.

He's reminding me of Al Gore with his making things up *L*