Daily Archives: January 26, 2013

Barack Obama thanks Hillary Clinton for work as Secretary of State

The Telegraph

In a preview of their CBS 60 Minutes interview to be aired on Sunday, US President Barack Obama publicly thanks the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she prepares to step down from the role.

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Filed under President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

BIll Maher Obliterates the Republican Lie that Obama Hasn’t Created Any Jobs

PoliticusUSA

When Republican consultant David Avella tried to push the lie that Obama has not created any jobs, he was completely destroyed by Bill Maher and Howard Dean.

Here is the video:

David Avella of GOPAC tried to spread the Republican myth that Obama has not created any jobs, but Bill Maher called him out on it.

Maher said, “That’s not true. That’s just a lie. What are you talking about he hasn’t created any jobs?” Avella said that there are no net new jobs since he started his administration. Maher responded because he started from the hole, but Avella interrupted him and expressed the Republican point of view that it doesn’t matter how many jobs were lost before Obama took office. Maher said the Republican no net new jobs meme is categorically untrue.

Panelist Howard Dean jumped into the conversation and said, “This is like listening to Paul Ryan on the budget. It’s ridiculous. They were going like that. Finally, they leveled off. After what Bush did which was borrow us into oblivion. From the bottom of the recession, there’s about five or six million new jobs created under Barack Obama. Is it enough? No, we need to do more stuff. I think we ought to put the old campaign behind us and talk about the new one.” Maher built on Dean’s point, “Also this week, if Mitt Romney had been taking the oath this week, he would be taking credit now for the news we got this week. Housing starts are up. Stock market is way up. Unemployment claims are way down. He’s the worst socialist ever, this Obama.”

This idea that Obama hasn’t created any jobs is a favorite Republican lie. At the 2012 Democratic convention, former President Clinton took apart this falsehood, “The Recovery Act saved and created millions of jobs and cut taxes for 95% of the American people. In the last 29 months the economy has produced about 4.5 million private sector jobs. But last year, the Republicans blocked the President’s jobs plan costing the economy more than a million new jobs. So here’s another jobs score: President Obama plus 4.5 million, Congressional Republicans zero.”

As of last fall, even if you count all of the job losses that continue to pile up before the president could implement his own policies, Obama still had a net job creation record of +325,000. Republicans try to claim that Obama has not created any jobs by including 2009 and saddling Obama with Bush job losses from the first day that he took office. The stimulus wasn’t passed and signed into law until February 2009, but it just so happens that the job losses in January 2009 were the worst in 34 years. Before Obama has even had two full weeks in office, the economy lost 540,000 jobs. Those job losses belong to George W. Bush, but Republicans put them on Obama in order to make their dubious jobs math work.

A more accurate assessment of Obama’s jobs record should begin 2010, when his policies were implemented. By that standard Obama has created over 5 million jobs. The truth is that no matter how you slice the numbers, Republicans are still clinging to a flat out lie that Obama hasn’t created any jobs.

Voters didn’t buy the Republican funny math during the 2012 election. They aren’t going to buy it in 2014 or 2016 either. Bill Maher and Howard Dean were right on the money to call this out.

Republicans still haven’t figured out that they are only fooling themselves with their bogus statistics. You can fool some of the people all of the time, especially if those people watch Fox News and vote Republican.

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Filed under GOP, GOP Agenda, GOP's Obama Derangement Syndrome

Ron Johnson: I Shouldn’t Have Speculated On Clinton’s Emotions

Sure, Mr. Johnson…

TPM Livewire

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who got into a heated exchange with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a Senate hearing on the deadly Benghazi attack, on Thursday said he shouldn’t have speculated that Clinton showed emotion to get out of answering tough questions.

“I did not accuse of her crying, no,” Johnson said on CNN. “I was responding to a question, Soledad. I probably speculated, and I shouldn’t have.”

Johnson told BuzzFeed on Wednesday that Clinton “just decided before she was going to describe emotionally the four dead Americans, the heroes, and use that as her trump card to get out of the questions. It was a good way of getting out of really having to respond to me.”

Clinton, in the exchange, asked Johnson what difference it makes whether the attack sprang out of a spontaneous protest or was a premeditated assault.

On Thursday, Johnson said, “The bottom line here, again, is the reason it makes a difference is the American people deserve the truth from their President and from this administration, and they haven’t gotten it yet.”

Watch:

 

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Filed under Hillary Clinton, Sen. Ron Johnson

Saturday Blog Roundup – 1-26-2013

‘We Beat The Liberals’
McConnell campaign email brags about blocking filibuster reform.

Latest From Virginia
A key Republican state senator in Virginia comes out against GOP scheme to apportion..

Careful what you scheme for
Over at the conservative National Review, Reihan Salam suggests Republicans give up ..

Mitt Romney: ‘I’m not going away’
Sadly, Mitt Romney is not plotting a 2016 comeback, but today he told big money Repu..

The View Obama Wanted to See One More Time
The Daily Beast has the photo as President Obama left the inaugural platform.

Fox News Isn’t Renewing Sarah Palin’s Contract
At the New York Times, cable news chronicler Brian Stelter has the story that Sarah ..

The Flu: New, Contagious Norovirus Infecting U.S.
The Flu: New, Contagious Norovirus Infecting U.S.

Wayne LaPierre, Mark Kelly to testify on Capitol Hill
Make sure to sign up to receive “Afternoon Fix” every day in your e-mail inbox by 5(..

Don’t write off GOP support for Obama’s gun proposals
Don’t look now, but a Republican Senator is quietly working with Democrats on n..

Jon Stewart: Obama’s inaugural speech took a swipe at Paul Ryan
President Obama’s comment about us not being a “nation of takers” was a slap at Paul .

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Filed under U.S. Politics