President Barack Obama on Friday laughed off Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) recent suggestion that positive economic signs could be connected to the GOP’s sweeping victory in the 2014 midterm election.
“Our Republican leader in the Senate, as he was coming in, after trying to block every single thing that we have done to strengthen the economy, starts looking at jobs numbers, says you know, it is getting better because we just got elected. And people are feeling more optimistic,” he said in a campaign-style speech at the DNC Winter Meeting in Washington.
“Which — okay. I didn’t know that’s how the economy worked, but maybe,” he chuckled, grinning from ear to ear. “We’ll call some economists.”
Last month on the Senate floor, newly minted Majority Leader McConnell said, “The uptick [in economic data] appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the Obama administration’s long tenure in Washington: the expectation of a new Republican Congress.”
Obama added on Friday: “Now that their predictions of doom and gloom and death panels and Armageddon haven’t come true — sky hasn’t fallen, Chicken Little’s quiet — the new plan apparently of congressional Republicans, and this is progress, the new plan is to rebrand themselves as the party of the middle class. Not making this up.”
That’s funny because when you point out how high the Dow is since Obama took over the gasbggers always say that the President doesn’t have anything to do with that. But elect a Republican and it’s all sunshine and sparkles.
It’s the same sort of thing RW’s say about the collapse in 2008; it happened because the Dems took over the Senate. No evidence for that at all, just like there is no evidence for this being true.
The president’s speech to the Democratic National Committee at 11:00 Eastern time is on the front page of the NY Times because it’s an important story directly related to his presidency and his legacy and the future of the party. There’s far more to his remarks than just a throwaway about McConnell which in this context becomes click bait and not reporting. I hope TPM reports more fully on the contents of the speech later today .
Gotta love Obama when he’s in his no more campaigns mood. He has no more fucks to give and is showing.
One thing the Dow and Wall St. do not like is uncertainty in the near-term and future economy. When Obama was elected there was a sigh of relief that the economy would so be on the right track. And it has been. For example, 401k plans have recovered well since the Shrub Recession.