THE STATE OF THE NATION ACCORDING TO THE AP

You have to love the Associated Press (known by some as the “Administration’s Press”) and their never ending attempts to create a ray of sunshine from the cloudiness of our national government.

I just read one of their columns from 8-31 titled Gloomy national message misrepresents consumer spending, home prices, jobs.

Long may it wave.....

Gosh, it sounds like things are looking up according to writer Tom Raum.  He says things aren’t as gloomy as the Republican National Convention would want us to believe.  Tom has been around a while so he knows something about trying to turn a lemon into lemonade.

He mentions that spending was up in July and personal income also rose.  No numbers though which makes one feel that they were miniscule or they would have been trumpeted.  The same goes for the slight rise in home sales and prices.

He did mention the addition of 163,000 jobs but failed to mention it was counterbalanced by lost jobs and that the unemployment rate, which is a sham in itself, ticked up to 8.3% from 8.2%.  How about the real rate of 16%, Tom?

Other positives mentioned were an increase in exports, retail spending, and factory production.  No mention of numbers on any of those items.

Alas, no matter how much lipstick you put on a pig; it’s still a pig.  Raum knows that so he has to admit that when the unemployment numbers are released for August on the morning of September 7, no one should expect much encouragement.

Did you notice I said the unemployment numbers will be released on the morning of September 7?  How convenient!   That is the day AFTER Obama accepts his nomination.   I guess they figure there is no sense in throwing rain on his parade with more bad news after what will certainly be called an upbeat convention.  No word yet whether the theme will be “Hope and Change.”  So far, the mood indicates a definite NO!

Raum has been at it with the AP for 39 years so he knows how to make full use of the inverse pyramid style of writing where one top loads a column with what they think are the more important and desirable aspects of the story.   As you can see from the above paragraphs, it looks like things are looking up and that voters should probably give Obama another four years to keep the ball rolling.

Unfortunately, reality has a way of rearing its ugly head as happened to the Wicked Witch of the East when she and her flying monkeys were splashed with water in The Wizard of Oz.

Raum ends his piece stating the reality that the U. S. economy is “the weakest of any since the Great Depression” and that “Economic growth has never been feebler in a post war recovery, consumer spending has never been so slack, and only once before has job growth been slower.”  Debt problems in Europe are still a concern and consumer confidence is at its lowest since November, 2011.

Finally, an AP poll taken a week before the Republican Convention showed that 60% of those surveyed thought the country is headed in the wrong direction while 35% said it was going in the right direction.

Needless to say, the Dems have their work cut out for them in Charlotte.   Maybe Michelle can unveil her new “Supermarket Shopping 101” course to the 99 percenters who are gathering by the thousands for the big shindig.  The fact that the course was not written by Michelle but by someone named Lisa Cericola and includes such tidbits as “steer clear of the cookie, snack and soda aisles” should be of great interest to them as they set up camp.