On Face the Nation, Norah O’Donnell asked DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (a congresswoman from Florida) about her recent claim that the nation’s economic situation has gotten better since President Obama took office. After all, O’Donnell pointed out, unemployment is up about 25 percent since January 2009, and 13.5 million more people are on food stamps since then.
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Predictably, Wasserman Schultz replied that it’s all Bush’s fault:
For the record, if President Obama wins a second term, I fully expect to hear this line until January 2017. Wasserman Schultz went on to criticize Texas Gov. Rick Perry, R, for claiming credit for his own state’s creation of half the jobs America has created since Obama became president:
First of all, think about this for a second: Her argument strikes not only at Perry’s claim to job creation, but Obama’s as well. After all, she’s downplaying half the jobs created on Obama’s watch, isn’t she?
Second, look at the interesting implied line of argument here: Perry, whose state verifiably gained jobs, has no business claiming credit. President Obama, who has presided over huge job losses (which may or may not have anything to do with his policies), is perfectly within his rights to claim credit for “saving” millions of jobs, even if there is no way of verifying the claim.
I sense some real weakness in the Democratic message shop right now. The underlying defense of President Obama (Gallup approval rating: 39 percent) is looking a bit thin at the moment. The Democrats are going to have to come up with something a lot better than that.
