Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders undermined a key Obama administration talking point Monday when he said the actual unemployment rate in the U.S. is double what the federal government claims.
“When you talk about the economy we also have to have an honest assessment of unemployment in America,” Sanders told a crowd of 7,500 gathered at a presidential campaign rally in Portland, Maine.
“Once a month the government publishes a set of figures, and the last figures they published said that official unemployment was 5.4 percent,” the Democratic nominee continued, slightly misstating the Labor Department’s most recent report which put June’s unemployment rate at 5.3 percent.
“But there is another set of government statistics,” Sanders continued, “and that that real unemployment if you include those people who have given up looking for work and the millions of others who are working part-time 20, 25 hours a week when they want to work full-time, when you all of that together, real unemployment is 10.5 percent.”
Wow. Straight out of the GOP playbook. Obama is lying to you about unemployment! Reeeeeeeeal unemployment is in double digits! Wake up, sheeple!
Dear Bernie Sanders: you will never raise yourself up as a Democrat by trying to bring Barack Obama down. This is the kind of glibertarian nonsense I expect from Rand Paul or Jeb Bush. If Bernie Sanders is using it too (and it turns out he's been using that "real unemployment" right-wing talking point for a while now) then I have yet another problem with the Sanders campaign.
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What in the hell is he thinking that attacking Pres. Obama is a good idea. The emos love this thinking it will get them somewhere when the numbers say otherwise he's trailing HRC among blacks, Latinos and especially women. Good luck with that.
This news disappoints me. In fact, it wounds me. We all know that the gibbering idiot left is the heart of the Sanderista movement, as the Dixiecrat racists are the hard core of the Teabagger movement (reason enough and more to reject both campaigns), but I have been clinging to the notion that the Bernster himself is a decent sort: no need to personalize the political theatre, no need to bescumber the good name of this long serving leftist.
By one of those little coincidences that Jung vulgarized into the concept of Synchronicity, the hysterical ninnies of the Daily Kos hoisted a little straw poll today: Bernie trumps Hillary 75:25, the only shocker there being that the stupids are not even more dominant over the echo chamber..
Where it gets interesting is with the followup question: supposing your candidate loses, will you support the Party nominee in the general election? 7% of the HRC votes are paired with an intention to sit out the general (leaving us to wonder how many are sincere, and how many are in fact lefty bomb throwers engaged in an unsubtle ratfucking operation) where a full 32% of the declared lefty bomb throwers are open about their intention to screw the party if they do not get their way.
These results surprise absolutely no one, being thoroughly consistent with historical trends as well as SIGINT chatter from the NSA feed on kossackistan and firebuggeria.
The only real surprise is that so many of the elwiors and unicorn ranchers are willing to be so open about their intentions. Given how testy they are concerning "scare stories" about the impending Republican takeover, are they perhaps attempting a scare story campaign of their own? Give us Bernie, or we WILL inflict the Republicans upon you: forever! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Sanders is merely pointing out that the official reporting statistic is imperfectly representative of the economic reality people experience. This is not the same thing as "attacking the President". President Obama, who I happily voted for twice, is a bullshit New Democrat just like that jagoff Clinton (either). Jamie Dimon should be in prison. Instead I get treated to photos of Obama giving him a hug for whipping the senate to pass cromnibus. Primary season is the time to say these things.
Here we have it: the mealy mouthed mewlings of the gibbering idiot left.
They build up the man in their hearts and minds and loins as the Great Lefty Savior, and when he obstinately refuses to wave his magic wand and spliff into existence their dreamy utopia they turn on him like a cauldron of rabid weasels: neoliberal Third Way New Democrat corporatist shill! He obviously was a lying crypto Republican sell out from the very beginning, who intended to hand everything to the oligarchs - WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HE DID!!!!!1!!1!11!
These people always come out for the primary, create as much havoc as they can get away with, then slink back to their hideyholes to let someone else do the heavy lifts of beating back the Republican machine so they can enjoy their impotent fantasies with minimal discomfort. I say we get a head start, club them back now, and minimize the chances for mischief in the general.
You'd think he would mention what the "real unemployment" was 6-7 years ago...NAHHHHH.
Seconded. I always like how they preface their screeds with, "But I voted for him twice!" and then launch into a tirade that, when one looks at it, has no basis in reality and just shows that they are upset that President Obama did not lock up all the bankers and drag Bush and Cheney screaming into the Hague. Healthcare reform? Wall Street reform? Making things better for Americans and becoming one of the most respected Presidents around the globe? Nah, none of that matters. He must be slammed for not giving unicorns to a tiny bunch that is suffering from tunnel vision and refuses to see that change has been happening all around them.
A similar dynamic is playing out in Stupidstan regarding Eric Holder. He failed to frog march Bush and Cheney in chains to the Hague, and he was not as aggressive as I would have liked in finding violations to pursue against the more egregious of the banksters - if only for the purpose of setting a good precedent - and the war profiteers, which the kossacks have spun up into the fairy tale that he was deliberately brought in from the white collar defense attorney world to serve as a mole who would protect Obama's buddies as they continued their evil ways under the approving blind eye of the NeoLiberal Corporate Sell Out in Chief.
One subtlety that chafes like a peppercorn under my saddleblanket is the way they now make offhand references to "the President's Sequester." The Sequester was intended as a Poison Pill, no sane person expected the Republicans to seize upon it as a mechanism for blowing up the government. Which inspires me to remark, that for the self styled "Democratic Party Base" the hysterical ninnies are remarkably ignorant and naive about how governance actually works - they seem to feel that stupid cynicism directed at their own leadership is the solitary necessary and sufficient condition for establishing a successful revolution. In so far as they want to be the Tea Party of the Left, I say "good riddance and lock the door behind you when you leave."
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