The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Reid's Big Day

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Reid's Big Day

By Philip Klein on 3.5.10 @ 1:30PM

By now, you've probably seen or heard Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's declaration that, "Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good."

As I noted earlier, from a sober economic standpoint, there are reasons to be encouraged by February's job report in the sense that the losses were lower than expected and the economy no longer appears to be shedding jobs at a rapid clip. That said, it's also true that the job market is still really weak and businesses have not started hiring again. We can debate what the numbers mean going forward. But from a political standpoint, it's incredibly tone deaf, even by Reid standards, to declare 36,000 job losses a "big day" and "really good." Democrats hammered the Bush administration for a "jobless recovery" and attacked him on the employment picture even as the economy added jobs. Reid's comment is a gift to Republicans along the lines of when John McCain bestowed candidate Obama with the statement that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong."

View all comments (14) | Leave a comment

Nathan White| 3.5.10 @ 2:57PM

You're right. The number are no doubt encouraging, but what a brain dead statement.

Eric CArtman| 3.6.10 @ 1:20PM

I wouldn't hold your breath for the revised numbers. Somethings fishy here. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Yup! Very fishy.

Tim| 3.5.10 @ 3:07PM

He probably had been on conference call with Joe Biden earlier.

WB| 3.5.10 @ 4:23PM

Joe knows how to work a phone?

Missy| 3.5.10 @ 4:52PM

They're hiring hundreds of thousands of 'temporary' census workers right now--perhaps that's why it appears that job losses are decreasing.

Big Java| 3.5.10 @ 5:18PM

...and the sad fact is, we are paying this man's salary.

danny| 3.5.10 @ 7:28PM

some times you gotta wonder if this old fool just has a public service death wish. how else can you explain the things he says? if i were a resident of nevada i think i would be sending the posse out for this idiot.

Spicy Joker| 3.5.10 @ 10:58PM

Reid is such a cretin. November can't come soon enough.

Tenn Slim| 3.6.10 @ 9:07AM

Opine
bt
True enough. Reid is indeed just speaking trash.
bt
A simple check of sites that garner Jobs for Resumes, or Jobs In "...." show mostly are recovery type positions. Entreprenuerail type positions, with no pay. Commission jobs, Insurance sales, NGO "Positions", and a very very few actual labor type positions. My R and D is NE so the tech jobs should show up, but not so. ANY jobs that I have uncovered are all NON paying, future oriented, maybe positions. The Green Job market = zero. No one is producing anything in this market, at least in the NE.
bt
We Will Prevail Come November 2010.
Semper FI
end

JP| 3.6.10 @ 11:29AM

Much of the recovery is actually benefiting overseas operations, and not necessairily North America.

Oldefarte| 3.6.10 @ 2:38PM

Well, in line with 'ol Harry-ars' assessment, hopefully the 36001st unemployed person will be himself in November!!!!!

Marc Jeric| 3.6.10 @ 3:07PM

The deathmask from Searchlight, Nevada has killed another 1500 highly technical jobs at Yucca Mountain Repository. That 70,000 tons of "nuclear waste" represents an incredible wealth of future energy - sufficient for 1500 years of electricity in America. "Dump" - he calls it; with reprocessing it is the largest source of energy in the history of the world.