AP Misses Real Eye-Opener in Obama NBC Interview; Obama Claims He 'Got Us Out of This Mess' (Modified in Subsequent Post)

UPDATE, JULY 18: This post was based in an Associated Press's quote of a statement President Obama made to NBC News that "my policies ... got us out of this mess." Subsequent review of the video and transcript of that interview shows that the President really said "my policies ... are getting us out of this mess." I have prepared a follow-up post dealing with this matter and a separate significant omission in the transcript at BizzyBlog and NewsBusters.

What follows are the first three paragraphs from this short AP report on President Obama's interview with NBC:

Wow.

It seems to me that the headline shouldn't be about voters deciding who's responsible for this mess (for what it's worth, pal, voters can and will have their say, but that doesn't affect who's really responsible, any more than OJ Simpson's jury acquittal on murder charges means he really didn't commit the crimes).

No, the headline should really be the president's breathtaking claim that he has -- already -- "got us out of this mess."

Who knew?

Unemployment is still 9.5%, and it's only that low because so many people have given up looking for work.

Foreclosures are still at record highs.

Retail sales have dropped by more than minor amounts for two months in a row.

The government's budget deficit is over $1 trillion for the second year in a row (it's really over $100 billion worse).

But the President says he "got out of this mess," and the AP apparently takes it as a given.

Yeah, right.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.