Romney’s jokes aren’t the problem. His economic analysis is.
(Steve Marcus - Reuters)
I wish we could all agree to stop jumping on things like Mitt Romney saying “I’m also unemployed.” It’s pretty clear from the context that he was making a joke. Jokes sometimes misfire, or read strangely when pulled out of context and printed in the paper. In the interest of having our candidates speak like something other than robots, we should cut them some slack.
I’d focus instead on Romney’s comment that “We have seen the most anti-investment, antigrowth, antijob strategy in America since Jimmy Carter. The result has been it’s harder and harder for people to find work.” By any measure, this is absurd. Taxes are at a 50-year low. The Dow has staged a roaring recovery. Business profits are near record levels. And the economy has gone from losing 780,000 jobs a month to gaining about 160,000 jobs a month. That is to say, it’s getting easier and easier for people to find work, even if it’s not nearly easy enough.
I don’t mind bad jokes. What I mind is bad economic analysis.
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