Walker Bobs, Weaves Through Jobs Data, State of State Speech
GOP Gov. Scott Walker worked around the realities of the state's statistically-demonstrable slow job growth (we're #37) and sputtering recovery by citing cherry-picked data, economic-activity reporting periods and some comparative state rankings - - but could not claim that he or the state were on track to meet his signature, oft-repeated 2010 and 2012 election promises to create 250,000 new private-sector jobs.
He said 100,000 jobs had been created so far: After three years in office, he needs to be sitting on a gain of 187,000 jobs right now to hit 250,000 in another year.
If the current pace continues, Walker won't get much past fulfilling 50% of the promise.
Even that's not Jim Doyle's fault, try as Walker did to blame everything on his predecessor all these years later.
It got to be tacky. In fact, one of Walker's speech highlights and applause lines repeated a previous jobs' claim he'd made that PolitiFact rated "Mostly False" because it blamed Jim Doyle directly for job losses attributable to the historic Great Recession.
As PolitiFact Tweeted:
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And speaking of bobbing and weaving, what is with that Bobble-Head tic that Walker does when he reads an applause set-up line off the Teleprompter?
It looks like he's nodding in affirmation to what he's just heard - - except he's the speaker.
It's a gesture that might come from someone in the audience instead from a the speaker looking to add some validation.
At some level, Walker undertands the shaky foundation or the tinny sound of his arguments; being his own cheerleader undercuts the delivery and weakens the message.
Look for his handlers and coaches to excise it.
First posted over at Purple Wisconsin:
PolitiFact Wisconsin
My favorite cherry-picked stat:
ReplyDelete"In fact, Wisconsin ranked as the 4th best state in the country for personal income growth from the second quarter to the third quarter in 2013."
Anybody have any idea what this really means? Sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it?
Number of mentions of Milwaukee in the governor's address? Two, if you include the reference to the company named Milwaukee Valve. The only other was a reference to Argon Industries of Milwaukee. Hey, at least Milwaukee got a mention, right?
ReplyDelete(Btw, surprisingly, no mention of the Green Bay Packers!)
Thanks to all who listened so I didn't have to. I'll read the about the highlights here and when Politifact fact-checks him and finds he told two Big Whoppers, lit his Pants on Fire, laid down a Truthiness carpet, and told 5 Big Fat Lies.
ReplyDeleteConservatives point to Doyle's record.
ReplyDeleteProgressives point to Bush's record.
I think it's now fair to compare Walker's record to Obama's.
Let's start with deficit spending and debt creation.
And job growth, where Wisconsin massively trails the US rate of job growth since the start of 2011.
DeleteAdvantage Obama
ReplyDeleteLet's start with deficit spending and debt creation.
Yeah, let;s start there. Obama has reduced the deficit further and faster than any post-war president.
Walker has increased the State's debt, but hidden the increases through budgetary sleight of hand.
You do understand, though, that "debt" and "deficit" are not the same things?
Besides, we progressives are satisfied pointing to WALKER'S record, which is pretty full of fail already. Where are those 250,000 jobs, again? You want to blame those on Obama, when Congressional Republicans do nothing but take repeated meaningless votes to repeal Obamacare, and little else?
Of course, I expect little but regurgitated Sykes/ Limbaugh errors from a commenter who can't even maintain a pseudonym.
Speaking of the Federal support for the expansion of Medicaid... did Walker mention Medicaid or the ACA at all?
ReplyDeleteAlso wondering if that big bad job-creatin' proposed taconite mine got any sort of a mention? Last year it was the star of the show, the hope of the nation, etc., etc. I'm thinking a year may have made a big difference.
Thanks in advance to those who managed to listen to the whole thing. I was gone with "we must turn around and move forward." The logic circuits simply overloaded. I watched a cooking show instead.