Lies my President is telling me

What’s New Today

Story #1 is the most recent sign of desperation by the Obama Campaign.  #2 talks about Chick-fil-A and liberty.  #3 looks at Obama’s policies that kills jobs. 

Today’s Thoughts

Chicago likes to compare itself to other world cities, so how does it rank in violence? It turns out no one can top Obama’s home town. Among what are considered Alpha world cities, Chicago has the highest murder rate -- higher even than the Third World metropolises of Mexico City and Sao Paolo.

Calenche Ranae Manos, a former Miss Nevada 2007, is suing the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department after she says deputies kicked down the wrong apartment door, pointed guns at her and her fiancee and watched as she got out of bed, naked.

London 2012 chairman and former middle-distance track legend Sebastian Coe insists empty seats are not a problem at the 2012 Olympic Games, and who are you going to believe?  Coe or your lying eyes?  Maybe Mitt Romney was correct.

1.  Signs of Desperation

Why, wonders Beth Reinhard of National Journal, is Team Obama airing a new television ad with claims already rated by Politifact as “pants on fire” false?  The ad in question, “Troubled,” claims Romney wants to make all abortions illegal, even in cases of rape and incest:…

…So why run yet another ad with the same ridiculous claims?  Reinhard says the key is in swing-state polling — which shows Barack Obama’s big lead among women shrinking substantially:

A look at the dwindling gender gap in just one of the states where the ad is running gives it away. In Virginia — ground zero for the so-called “war on women” because of anti-abortion initiatives in the state capitol — Obama was running ahead of Romney in Quinnipiac University polls in March and June, largely because of monster leads among women. The gender gap was 13 points in March and 16 points in June.

Then came July’s survey, which found the candidates deadlocked at 44 percent each. The gender gap had shrunk to only 5 points….

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/25/barack-obama/romney-abortion-rape-incest/

Obama is willing to say anything to try to get people to vote for him.  It is a true sign of desperation. 

2.  Chick-fil-A and Liberalism

Political folks always run the risk of losing integrity by descending into the thoughtless conformity Peggy Noonan once called “teamism.” So it’s important that we notice when people resist the gravitational pull of thuggishness, and stand up to their own side on a heated issue. It’s clear to me that the bullying tactics being threatened against the Chick-fil-A restaurants are wrong and illiberal, and I want to praise some liberals who are being vocal in agreement on this point. Here is Adam Serwer in Mother Jones:

Menino and Moreno have it wrong. Blocking construction of Chick-fil-a restaurants over Cathy’s views is a violation of Cathy’s First Amendment rights. Boston and Chicago have no more right to stop construction of Chick-fil-As based on an executive’s anti-gay views than New York City would have had the right to block construction of an Islamic community center blocks away from Ground Zero. The government blocking a business from opening based on the owner’s political views is a clear threat to everyone’s freedom of speech—being unpopular doesn’t mean you don’t have rights. It’s only by protecting the rights of those whose views we find odious that we can hope to secure them for ourselves….

… Rights do not depend on a referendum on the popularity of the one whose rights are at stake, which is also why Serwer’s analogy of the mosque in lower Manhattan is so appropriate. If some people can have their rights taken away because there is an angry mob in the streets (in the case of the mosque) or because there is an angry mob of cynical Democratic politicians at city hall (in the case of Chick-fil-A), the rights of the rest of us will last only so long as we are lucky enough not to have an angry mob targeting us.
PS. At the risk of alienating the good feelings of the two liberals I have just praised (and of others as well), let me point out that I consider the right of Catholics and other religious objectors not to pay for contraception another, similar right that deserves protection against an overweening government. But sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; I thank everybody who has had the courage to stand up for Chick-fil-A in the face of harsh opposition.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/312562/chick-fil-and-liberals-michael-potemra

Freedom and real liberty is something that took thousands of years to achieve.  It seems that if is cherished until it gets in the way of what someone wants to do.  It’s not worth it to give up that liberty for a quick fix be that gun control, healthcare, or even an unproven global warming scare. 

3.  Obama’s Job Killing Policies

…Today, our economy is roughly $13.56 trillion in size, adjusting for inflation. If we had grown at just the median 15.1% rate, our economy would be $15.34 trillion in size — a $1.78 trillion difference.

Does it matter? You bet. Obamanomics has cost Americans a huge piece of their standard of living. By our calculation, that $1.78 trillion in missing growth has cost each American $5,780 in lost output. That's $5,780 less for paying mortgages, investing for retirement, kids' college education — in short, our standard of living has been slashed.

The failure of Keynesian stimulus and Obama's socialist meddling in our economy is clear. Unemployment has remained above 8% for 42 straight months. The total number of unemployed, officially 13 million, is really closer to 28 million when you count discouraged workers and those who can find only part-time work
.
Yet, Obama continues to slam the door on the entrepreneurs who create small businesses and 80% of all new jobs. Rather than help them, Obama and the Democrats threaten to hike their taxes.
Small business is in crisis, but help isn't on the way. Obama has some 300 regulations pending, each with a job-killing annual cost topping $100 million.

Small businesses today spend more than $10,000 per worker on regulatory costs, and it's only getting worse.

Meanwhile, Obama's planned tax hikes will hit 1.2 million small businesses and kill 710,000 jobs, a new study says — even as a report from the U.S. Census shows that from 2008 to 2010, an estimated 200,000 small businesses disappeared, taking millions of jobs with them….

http://news.investors.com/article/620162/201207271900/americans-are-losing-ground-under-obama-polices.htm

But those kinds of results and statistics are deemed by Obama as a success. He told us his plans have worked.  Is there any way to get my $5,780 ?

Success?

What’s New Today

Story #1 is about the less than great recovery.  #2 is what success looks like from Obama’s definition.  #3 is today’s sign of desperation by the Obama Administration.  #4 looks at the difference between an empire and a state.  #5 is a different look at global warming.

Today’s Thoughts

Obama saved Detroit or more specifically the UAW.  UAW autoworkers didn’t lose a penny in hourly wages, even as their employers were driven into bankruptcy.  In this case Obama is correct if you apply his statement to the UAW.  “You didn’t make it yourself.” 

This week Obama announced, “I’m also very pleased that this week we are going to be able to announce $70 million in additional spending — $70 billion, excuse me, in additional spending for ‘Iron Dome.’” (million was correct).  This is a gaffe.  “You didn’t build it,” is the truth slipping out. 

In 2011, Obama’s regulatory agencies imposed 3,807 new rules on various sectors of the economy that Oversight staff expect to cost over $105 billion this year alone. As of the fall of 2011, federal regulators were considering 133 new “economically significant rules” — that is, regulations that would each cost over $100 million annually.

1.  The Less than Great Recovery

President Obama didn't comment on Friday's report of declining growth in the second quarter, and that's no surprise. The economic story of his Presidency is by now familiar: a plodding recovery that has taken its third dip in three years and is barely raising incomes for most Americans.

"We're still in a position where we are pulling ourselves out of the very deep hole caused by the Great Recession, and there is still—of course—a great deal of anxiety in the country about the economy,'' said White House press secretary Jay Carney. He's right about the anxiety, but if only we were "pulling ourselves out."

The reality is that the Great Recession ended three long years ago. In this Less Than Great Recovery, the economy shows promise for one good quarter then slows back down. As the nearby chart shows, this is the third straight year of sputtering recovery. Growth of 4.1% in the fourth quarter declined to 2% in the first and now 1.5% in the second. The stock market rose as investors bet that the lousy growth will inspire more Federal Reserve easing…

… Housing is also now less of a drag on GDP. But this makes the paltry 1.5% growth more disconcerting, because it means that other parts of the economy are growing less rapidly than they ought to be.

Consumption ticked up only 1.5%, for example, down from 2.4% in the first quarter. This may reflect that wages and salaries are barely keeping pace with inflation. Another negative is that business inventories climbed unexpectedly in the second quarter, which often presages a decline in business spending in the next quarter to clear the shelves.

It's important to understand how unusual this kind of weak recovery is. Deep recessions like the one from December 2007 to June 2009 are typically followed by stronger recoveries, as there is more lost ground to make up….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443477104577553211912280818.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

The standard line for this administration is that we are growing after losing (fill in the blank, jobs, growth, etc).  It’s not enough, but we are moving in the right direction.  Its nonsense, but it is the only thing the Administration can say.  We aren’t moving in the right direction.  Job creation is down, growth in down.  It’s up from the depth of the recession, but it is down from six months ago and significantly down. 

  

2.  Here’s what success looks like to Obama

President Obama tells a group of donors that "we tried our" economic plan "and it worked." Even in politics, where exaggeration is a way of life, that statement stands out as a lie for the ages….

…But, he said, "we tried our plan - and it worked," which is wholly consistent with his June comment that "the private sector is doing fine."

Some say Obama was merely referring to Clinton policies. But he clearly said "our plan" and began to brag about saving the auto industry and refusing to "let Detroit go bankrupt." So "our plan" is actually Obama's.

So we ask: Has the plan of a man who said his brief private-sector job experience was like working "behind enemy lines" really worked? Let's look at the evidence.

Unemployment: The jobless rate in June was 8.2%, the same rate for May. In April it was 8.1%, a tick better than the 8.2% of March….

…GDP: The economy grew a meager 1.5% annualized in the second quarter, down from 2.2% in the first quarter. It grew only 1.7% for all of 2011…

…Stimulus: Obama signed a nearly $1 trillion stimulus plan shortly after taking office. The administration vowed unemployment would drop below 6%. Yet Americans can't find work, and the economy remains sick.

Debt: The federal debt rose more during Obama's first 38 months in office - a bit more than $5 trillion - than it did under all eight years of George W. Bush. The CBO says Obama's policies will add an additional $6.4 trillion over the next decade.

Auto bailouts: Obama hijacked a legal bankruptcy by automakers to "save" the industry. GM and Chrysler are still in business. But GM's stock has fallen to its lowest level since the bailout IPO. The company's sinking value could cost taxpayers $23 billion.

Food stamps: A record 14.8% of the country - 46 million Americans - are in the program, well above the 9.3% during George W. Bush's final year in office and far in excess of the 1970-2000 average of 7.9%.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2012/07/27/sorry_mr_president_your_economic_plan_didnt_work_99791.html

If this is what success looks like for Obama you shudder to think what failure looks like.  The only mitigating factor in his defense is that he is a Chicago Cubs fan.  

3.  Signs of Desperation

A memo from Democratic National Committee director Brad Woodhouse obtained by Buzzfeed outlines how the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama will continue to respond to Mitt Romney’s attacks on the President’s “you didn’t build that” comments. The memo details how the Obama campaign will get off the ropes and retake the offensive against the Republican’s presumptive presidential nominee with a comprehensive list of attacks the campaign will levy against Romney – one such attack line that stood out is the Obama campaign’s intention to go after Romney for raising fees on milk while he was Massachusetts’ governor.

The memo details how the Obama campaign intends to take the gloves off against Romney to counter his “out of context” attacks on Obama’s full-throated defense of the public sector as the mother of invention. 

If you’re the Governor that raised a fee on milk and attempted to impose a $10 fee for a state certificate of blindness, it becomes clear why Mitt Romney doesn’t want to talk about his record as Governor on jobs or the economy or budget and taxes.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/obama-campaign-memo-on-response-to-you-didnt-build-that-attacks-hit-romney-for-raising-milk-fees/

Say what???  This is absolutely the weakest response that I can imagine and then connecting it to Mitt Romney not wanting to talk about his record is ludicrous.  However it give Romney a chance to ask Obama about the almost $6 trillion in deficit spending or 1.5% growth last quarter.   This screams desperation.  

4.  The Empire Strikes Back

Yale Prof. Charles Hill is often called a "conservative." But he is one of the foremost students and advocates of what he calls the "liberal" ("in the finest sense of the word") world order. And he is worried that Americans increasingly don't understand how special the modern era has been or their own crucial role in developing and securing it. 

To some, the Obama's administration's desire to "lead from behind" and seek United Nations approval for actions abroad represents an appropriate retreat to a more humble American posture. Mr. Hill, by contrast, sees the possible end of a great era of human rights and democracy promotion the likes of which the planet has never seen. 

Our world has "been increasingly tolerant and increasingly trying to eradicate racism and increasingly trying to expand freedom. And it can come to an end," he says.

What might replace it? "Spheres of influence." Or to use a more archaic term, "empire."..

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443343704577552821956795292.html?mod=opinion_newsreel

This is a very interesting article tracing Professor Hill’s view of empire vs states. His view of the United Nations is balanced and very insightful.   I recommend you read it.

5.  Global warming

…IT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO that Dyson began publicly stating his doubts about climate change. Speaking at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University, Dyson announced that “all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated.” Since then he has only heated up his misgivings, declaring in a 2007 interview with Salon.com that “the fact that the climate is getting warmer doesn’t scare me at all” and writing in an essay for The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin, that climate change has become an “obsession” — the primary article of faith for “a worldwide secular religion” known as environmentalism. Among those he considers true believers, Dyson has been particularly dismissive of Al Gore, whom Dyson calls climate change’s “chief propagandist,” and James Hansen, the head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and an adviser to Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Dyson accuses them of relying too heavily on computer-generated climate models that foresee a Grand Guignol of imminent world devastation as icecaps melt, oceans rise and storms and plagues sweep the earth, and he blames the pair’s “lousy science” for “distracting public attention” from “more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet.”…

…Climate models, he says, take into account atmospheric motion and water levels but have no feeling for the chemistry and biology of sky, soil and trees. “The biologists have essentially been pushed aside,” he continues. “Al Gore’s just an opportunist. The person who is really responsible for this overestimate of global warming is Jim Hansen. He consistently exaggerates all the dangers.”

Dyson agrees with the prevailing view that there are rapidly rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere caused by human activity. To the planet, he suggests, the rising carbon may well be a MacGuffin, a striking yet ultimately benign occurrence in what Dyson says is still “a relatively cool period in the earth’s history.” The warming, he says, is not global but local, “making cold places warmer rather than making hot places hotter.” Far from expecting any drastic harmful consequences from these increased temperatures, he says the carbon may well be salubrious — a sign that “the climate is actually improving rather than getting worse,” because carbon acts as an ideal fertilizer promoting forest growth and crop yields. “Most of the evolution of life occurred on a planet substantially warmer than it is now,” he contends, “and substantially richer in carbon dioxide.” …

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?_r=4&pagewanted=2

An interesting look at climate change. 

The country sinks lower

What’s New Today

Story #1 is today’s sign of Obama’s desperation.  #2 looks at the fallout from Obama’s statement about small businesses.  #3 talks about Obama going off script.  #4 is an excellent video of a speech on the floor of the House.  #5 is Mark Steyn’s take on what’s going on with the election.  #6 looks at Obama’s claim that his policies are working. 

Today’s Thoughts

In the summer of 2009, 58 percent thought the economy would be stronger within five years. By the summer of 2010, only 50 percent had such long-term optimism. By last summer, just 46 percent were that upbeat. And now only 40 percent think the economy will be stronger in five years.  This spells disaster for Obama.

How’s the hopey/changey stuff working for ICE?  "Prosecutorial discretion for dreamers is solely based on the individual's claims. Our orders are if an alien says they went to high school, then let them go," Union boss Chris Crane said at a press conference with GOP senators. "Officers have been told that there is no burden for the alien to prove anything.”  This sounds like the Democrats policy on voter ID laws.  

Romney leads Obama 49-44 percent in today’s Rasmussen Poll.  This is the same lead on this date in 2008 that Obama had over John McCain also 49-44. 

1.  Signs of Desperation

Jon Stewart did more than take his clown nose off last night.  He put on his tragedy mask. After all, Stewart exists to protect President Barack Obama, and Obama is in trouble thanks to a self-inflicted campaign wound.

On Wednesday's edition of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," the Comedy Central host blasted both Fox News and the Romney campaign  for daring to cover - and focus on - President Obama's now infamous Ronoake, Va. "you didn't build that" speech.

Funny how it took several days for Stewart to take action on behalf of his Dear Leader, around the same time Team Obama started to panic that the gaffe has legs.

Just a coincidence, no doubt.

Although Stewart conceded that both sides are guilty of focusing on gaffes -- "I like to fire people,” anyone? -- he claimed that Romney was taking the usual political spin one giant step further.

"This deliberate misstating and misrepresentation of Obama's position is now the centerpiece of Romney's entire campaign," he said. "Hanging your attack on a person's slight grammatical misstep is what people do in an argument when they’re completely [in trouble] and they know they have no argument."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/07/26/stewart-rushes-obama-defense

Calling in Stewart shows a great deal of desperation.  And Stewart’s comment that “hanging your attack on a person’s slight grammatical misstep is what people do in an argument when they’re completely in trouble and they know they have no argument” is humorous since Obama’s entire campaign is built on two huge lies that Romney is rich and therefore unworthy of being president and Bain Capital outsourced jobs when Romney ran it. 

2.  “You didn’t build that”:  the fallout

What's the difference between a calm and cool Barack Obama, and a rattled and worried Barack Obama? Four words, it turns out. 

"You didn't build that" is swelling to such heights that it has the president somewhere unprecedented: on defense. Mr. Obama has felt compelled—for the first time in this campaign—to cut an ad in which he directly responds to the criticisms of his now-infamous speech, complaining his opponents took his words "out of context." …

…The obsession with tested messages is precisely why the president's rare moments of candor—on free enterprise, on those who "cling to their guns and religion," on the need to "spread the wealth around"—are so revealing. They are a look at the real man. It turns out Mr. Obama's dismissive words toward free enterprise closely mirror a speech that liberal Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren gave last August.

Ms. Warren's argument—that government is the real source of all business success—went viral and made a profound impression among the liberal elite, who have been pushing for its wider adoption. Mr. Obama chose to road-test it on the national stage, presumably thinking it would underline his argument for why the wealthy should pay more. It was a big political misstep, and now has the Obama team seriously worried.

And no wonder. The immediate effect was to suck away the president's momentum. Mr. Obama has little positive to brag about, and his campaign hinges on keeping negative attention on his opponent. For months, the president's team hammered on Mr. Romney's time at Bain, his Massachusetts tenure, his tax returns. "You didn't build that" shifted the focus to the president, and his decision to respond to the criticisms has only legitimized them and guaranteed they continue. 

The Obama campaign's bigger problem, both sides are now realizing, is that his words go beyond politics and are more devastating than the Romney complaints that Mr. Obama is too big-government oriented or has mishandled the economy. They raise the far more potent issue of national identity and feed the suspicion that Mr. Obama is actively hostile to American ideals and aspirations. Republicans are doing their own voter surveys, and they note that Mr. Obama's problem is that his words cause an emotional response, and that they disturb voters in nearly every demographic….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443931404577551344018773450.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

 

Trying to portray Romney as being out of touch seems futile when Obama said this on his own and demonstrated how out of touch he is with the American dream and the American experience. 

3.  Obama’s off Script honesty

One cannot help noticing the struggle between Barack Obama’s natural instincts and the serene and benevolent persona he projects to the world. Beneath the visage of a cosmetically populist, post-racial, post-partisan reformer who wants to “perfect” America and to have “millionaires and billionaires” “pay their fair share” is just another condescending, self-important, sarcastic, academic liberal Democrat, who believes in false consciousness and in scholastic theories that success in life can be attributed to birth or luck or community but not to individual effort and grit. Obama may be talented at self-fashioning, but he cannot maintain his public face constantly. The mask sometimes slips.

The real Obama emerges. He lets loose in the self-consciously ironic and pretentiously omniscient argot of the American ruling class, lecturing audiences in what he, Elizabeth Warren, and the segment producers at MSNBC treat as the new catechism. The reaction to these gaffes is always the same. His remarks spark justified criticism. There is a frenetic effort to paper over his comments and restore the impression that he is just another dad who wants to take care of one big American family. He and his lieutenants and other members of the “truth” posse indulge in mock outrage. They say the president’s words have been distorted, that he did not really say what he said, that he meant something else entirely. The activity is convulsive and furious because David Axelrod and David Plouffe understand that an unplugged Obama will damage his brand. He is not actually likable at all. And he is liable to wreck years of hard work and mythmaking the moment he goes off script….

http://nation.foxnews.com/president-obama/2012/07/27/unscripted-moments-damage-obama-s-carefully-built-image

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” Robert McCloskey Barack Obama

“Who are you going to believe?  Me or your lying ears?” David Axelrod

4.The Cost of Yellow Tape, Green Tape and Red Tape

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1YQDjpuY_U&feature=player_embedded

Representative Mike Kelly gave a short speech on the floor of the House and got applause and cheers (both are normally forbidden).  I recommend you watch this link. 

5.  Building Roadblocks rather than Roads

… Rattled by the reborn Romney, the Obama campaign launched an attack on Romney's attack on Obama's attack on American business. First they showed Romney quoting Obama: "He said, 'If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.'" And then the Obama team moved in for the kill: "The only problem? That's not what he said."

Indeed. What Obama actually said was:

"If you've got a business, you, you didn't build that. [Interjection by fawning supporters: "Yeeaaaaah!"] "Somebody else made that happen."… (note Romney forgot the second you)

…In Obama's world, businessmen build nothing, whereas government are the hardest hard-hats on the planet. So, in his "You didn't build that" speech, he invoked, yet again, the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. "When we invested in the Hoover Dam or the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Internet, sending a man to the moon – all those things benefited everybody. And so that's the vision that I want to carry forward."

He certainly carries it forward from one dam speech to another. He was doing his Hoover Dam shtick only last month, and I pointed out that there seemed to be a certain inconsistency between his enthusiasm for federal dam-building and the definitive administration pronouncement on the subject, by Deanna Archuleta, his Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior, in a speech to Democratic environmentalists in Nevada:

"You will never see another federal dam."

Ever. So the president can carry forward his "vision," but it apparently has no more real-world application than the visions he enjoyed as a member of his high school "choom gang" back in Hawaii. Incidentally, I was interested to learn from David Maraniss' enlightening new biography that, during car-chooming sessions, young Barry insisted all the windows be rolled up so that no marijuana smoke would escape. If you can seriously envision President Obama opening a 21st century Hoover Dam, you need to lower the windows on your Chevy Volt.

The Golden Gate Bridge? As Reason's Matt Welch pointed out, the Golden Gate cost at the time $35 million – or about $530 million today. So, for the cost of Obama's 2009 stimulus bill alone, we could have had 1,567 Golden Gate Bridges. Where are they? Where are, say, the first dozen? …

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/obama-364707-build-golden.html

I love Mark Steyn’s writing.  He brings up a good point.  To get the economy going government spent and extra equivalent of 1567 Golden Gate Bridges.  So where are they?  I guess the answer is Mr. President, “You didn’t build that.”

 

6.  Despite Obama’s claim his policies worked, growth slowed to 1.5% rate

The United States economy grew by a tepid 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter, losing the momentum it had appeared to be gaining earlier this year, the government reported Friday.
Growth was held back as consumers curbed purchases and business investment slowed in the face of a global slowdown and a stronger dollar. Analysts had expected a 1.4 percent rate.

The sluggishness of the recovery makes the United States more vulnerable to trouble in Europe and increases the likelihood of more stimulus from the Federal Reserve, which has lowered its forecasts in recent weeks. It also illustrates the election-season challenge to President Obama, who must sell his economic record to voters as the recovery slows. 

In part, the economy subsided after an unseasonable spurt during the warm winter, and in part it followed the pattern of the past couple of years — one of hopes raised, then dashed by wary business owners and households trying to reduce their debt. 

In the first quarter, the economy grew 2 percent, according to the revised figures released Friday by the Commerce department.  Its previous estimate was 1.9 percent…

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/business/economy/us-economy-expands-at-1-5-rate.html?_r=1&hp

The timing of all this couldn’t be worse for Obama and the Democrats.  After two failed “recovery summers” we seem to be into a recession preview.