On Friday, Jim Kuhnhenn at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, seemed to enjoy President Barack Obama's rant against Republicans and others grossly dissatisfied with the economy's performance on his watch. He described Obama as "taunting Republicans" in his speech at the Democratic Party's winter meeting in Washington.
The wire service itself seems less enamored of Kuhnhenn's less than presidential portrayal of Obama. Based on a search on "taunting," the first word in his report, it is no longer present at the AP's national site.
Kuhnhenn's calamity is still carried at the New York Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and several other places.
Naturally, the AP reporter failed to note that Obama's condescension concerns an economy which has just turned in the worst eight-year growth performance in the past 62 years.
Here are Kuhnhenn's opening three paragraphs (bolds are mine throughout this post):
Taunting Republicans, President Barack Obama on Friday said it’s “not an accident” that the economy is improving under his watch and chided GOP critics for “doom and gloom” predictions that haven’t come true.
Obama said he welcomed the attention Republicans have been giving to the middle class, “but so far at least the rhetoric has not matched the reality.”
In a speech to the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting, Obama gave a rousing defense of his economic policies and promoted his agenda as the right policy and political prescriptions for Democrats heading into the 2016 elections. He said the party’s belief in “middle class economics,” including his health care law, has spurred economic growth and job creation.
Democratic Party-driven Keynesian economics, deep deficit spending and regulation on steroids have dominated the political landscape since the Democratic Party took control of both houses of Congress in 2007. Those economic policy pillars have, to use Kuhnhenn's word sarcastically, "spurred" the worst eight-year run of economic growth since 1952:
As I wrote in a column at another site late last week (link is in original):
... agenda-driven regulators are deliberately holding up economic progress and bullying existing businesses, while illegal competition undercuts citizens who want jobs. It’s utterly amazing that the U.S. economy is growing at all. Given a recent report that “fewer native-born Americans are working today than were at the end of 2007,” perhaps the “U.S. citizen economy” really hasn’t.
Obama and his party are either oblivious to all of this, or, despite their "we love the middle class" rhetoric, don't really care.
Here is one other nonsensical nugget from Kuhnhenn:
With the economic recovery showing signs of taking hold, Democrats and Republicans have turned their attention to improving wages for working-class Americans.
So in Jim Kuhnhenn's world, an economy whose "recovery" is finally "showing signs of taking hold" almost 68 months or over 5-1/2 years after the recession officially ended justifies "taunting" the opposition.
No wonder AP reduced his report's visibility so quickly.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
