"Leading From Behind"

I finally got around to watching Sunday's Meet The Press. Aside from the usual beltway blather about Obama being "weak" on foreign policy, there was one part of David Gregory's 'roundtable' that stuck out at me: claims that the president "looks weak" economically.

In actuality, the numbers speak for themselves, and they make Obama look pretty damn good. For one thing, the job market is as strong as it's been since before the Great Recession

But in recent months, something has changed. On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that U.S. employers added 288,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, its lowest level since September 2008, the month Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy sparked a global financial crisis. The U.S. has added 1.4 million jobs so far this year, making it the best half-year since the recession ended. Payrolls are up by 2.5 million over the past year, also the best mark of the recovery.

Source: Five Thirty Eight

The Wall Street Journal added:

U.S. employers added 288,000 jobs in June, far more than economists had forecast and a sign of strength in the labor market. Job growth in April and May was sharply revised upward as well. The gains mark the fifth consecutive month that nonfarm payrolls grew by more than 200,000, a streak unmatched since the late 1990s.

Source: Wall Street Journal

"Sure, sure," some may retort, "But what about the stock market?". Well, actually, the Dow recently reached a high of 17,000.

Terrance Odean, a finance professor at the University of California at Berkeley, is expecting the Dow reaching 17,000 will spur more buying.

“I expect that the biggest effect of hitting 17,000 is that the event gets news coverage and, in the process, reminds (or informs) investors that the market has been going up,” Odean told MarketWatch in an email. “While this could prompt some people to sell, I’d expect it to trigger more buying than selling.”

 Source: Market Watch

"That said, investors should be feeling good about Dow 17,000," Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist with Wells Fargo Advisors, wrote in a note to investors. "The stock market has more than recovered from levels seen during the financial crisis more than five years ago. Slow and steady can win the race; and it has."
The Dow has climbed more than 10,500 points since its Great Recession low of 6,547.05 on March 9, 2009.

Source: Seattle Times

As for the storied deficit, it has shrunk - not grown - on Obama's watch:

The federal budget outlook will continue to improve this year, with the deficit projected to shrink to $514 billion — the lowest level since President Barack Obama took office.
Rebounding tax receipts and slower spending will help narrow the budget shortfall for the third consecutive year, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday. The deficit will continue to fall next year, to $478 billion, before beginning to climb again in 2016, as costs related to aging baby boomers mount.

Source: Politico

(All emphasis mine)

Not bad for a president so many derisively accuse of being a "Socialist". But don't wait for the so-called "liberal press" to report much on these good numbers - they're so worried about appearing "biased" in the eyes of noted centrists like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity that they skew coverage to the right in a ham-handed attempt to "balance" the news.

A lie by omission, of course, is still a lie. As long as this good news doesn't receive proper coverage, however, it gets passed on until it becomes gospel to under-informed voters. So much for the media doing its job...