Those who thought that President-elect Obama's pre-Thanksgiving promise to "create or save jobs," appropriately satirized by Mark Finkelstein at NewsBusters on November 24, might have been another one of the Oh-So-(in)Articulate One's "inartful" statements should know that it has become standard fare in Obama speeches.

In related news, Uncle Sam told us Friday that over 136 million seasonally adjusted jobs were "saved"in November (go here to replicate):

Never mind the 533,000 seasonally adjusted jobs lost -- which illustrates just how risible Obama's promise shift from the presidential campaign really is. Old Media's failure to note this shift is journalistic malpractice that would never occur during a Republican presidency.

First, I'll quote Obama's radio address (I'll leave to commenters to discuss the propriety of his doing such addresses before assuming office), followed by the Associated Press's coverage of it. Finally, I'll prove, as much as a negative statement can be proven, that Obama never used the phrase "create or save" or anything close to it during the campaign.

From Obama's address (bolds are mine):

..... But we need action – and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars.

..... These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately. We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who’ve lost them know that they have a future. And that’s exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States.

Here is a portion of the Bloomberg's coverage:

President-elect Barack Obama said he’ll make the “single largest new investment” in roads, bridges and public buildings since the Eisenhower Administration to lift the sagging economy and create jobs.

Obama, in his weekly radio speech today, said his plan to create or preserve 2.5 million jobs will also include making public buildings more energy efficient, repairing schools and modernizing health care with electronic medical records.

Aside: Why did Bloomberg's Hans Nichols use a word Obama didn't utter once in his speech?

Here are some relevant search results from before the election:

• Google News archives, Jan. 1, 2006 thorugh Nov. 3, 2008, search on [Obama "save or create"] (typed as indicated within brackets) -- nothing.
• Google News archives, same date range, search on [Obama "save and create"] -- One result at a Pittsburgh radio station's site looking forward to a debate between Obama and Hillary Clinton ("Both candidates will discuss their positions on foreign trade and how they plan to save and create jobs"). This obviously has nothing relating to what Obama might have actually said later.
• Google News archives, same date range, search on [Obama "create or save"] -- One result irrelevant to the search for a comprehensive promise, listed twice, where Obama apparently told Charlie Rose that some unspecificed action did not "Create or save a single job." 
• Google News archives, same date range, search on [Obama "create and save"] (typed as indicated within brackets) -- nothing.
• Google News archives, same date range, search on [Obama "create or protect"] (typed as indicated within brackets) -- nothing.
• Google News archives, same date range, search on [Obama "create or preserve"] (typed as indicated within brackets) -- nothing.  
• New York Times -- the same six searches yielded nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, and nothing.

The relevant page on the economy at Obama's presidential campaign site is littered with references to creating jobs, including "5 million green jobs." There is one narrow exception, but it's not a promise; instead it is an observation that something called the Manufacturing Extention Partnership has "helped create and protect over 50,000 jobs."

The conclusion based on the searches is obvious: Candidate Obama promised only to create jobs, while President-elect Obama is okay with merely saving them. This is a bar lowering of historic proportions that the press wants to pretend doesn't exist. It does, and their failure to note it is yet another reason why their slide to irrelevance and/or bankruptcy can't happen quickly enough.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.

—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters