Jobs Numbers are In…. Good for USA, Bad for Kerry

Fox News Channel is reporting:

“WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 144,000 workers to their payrolls in August and hiring totals for the two prior months were revised up as the job market brightened, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent last month from 5.5 percent in July. But the drop in the jobless rate in August came as people left the work force for any number of reasons, the Labor Department said. Economists were predicting the jobless rate to hold steady in August.”

That’s the biggest gain since May, and the 12th month of steady jobs growth.

And Kerry wants to move away from this success?

Fox News Channel is reporting:

“WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 144,000 workers to their payrolls in August and hiring totals for the two prior months were revised up as the job market brightened, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent last month from 5.5 percent in July. But the drop in the jobless rate in August came as people left the work force for any number of reasons, the Labor Department said. Economists were predicting the jobless rate to hold steady in August.”

That’s the biggest gain since May, and the 12th month of steady jobs growth.

And Kerry wants to move away from this success?

Fox News Channel is reporting:

“WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 144,000 workers to their payrolls in August and hiring totals for the two prior months were revised up as the job market brightened, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent last month from 5.5 percent in July. But the drop in the jobless rate in August came as people left the work force for any number of reasons, the Labor Department said. Economists were predicting the jobless rate to hold steady in August.”

That’s the biggest gain since May, and the 12th month of steady jobs growth.

And Kerry wants to move away from this success?

Yep, that’s what I said… this presidential race is now Bush’s to lose. Barring something really stupid on the part of Mr. Bush’s team, which given the history doesn’t seem at all likely, Mr Bush will win this race going away.

I say this not only on the President’s speechmaming last night, but also on the rambling unfocused, almost catatonic response from Kerry last night. He reminded me of water, looking around for a place to leak in, and not being very successful about it.

And of course the polling numbers are on line with this prediction, as well. Bush will win the popular vote by at least 10-15%. How that will wide a margin of victory in electoral votes is another matter, though.

Watch for Kerry over the next 48 hours to be crying about how Bush and company “attacked my patriotism”. actually, that’s wrong. Mr. Bush and the remainder of the Republcians did nothing of the kind. It’s a fellow Democrat… John O’Neil, of the swiftees who did that.

In any event, I have many thoughts on the matter which are far too long to be butting here. I’m writing it up and will be posting it in my weekly long-form. Watch here for the link, Sunday night.

Yep, that’s what I said… this presidential race is now Bush’s to lose. Barring something really stupid on the part of Mr. Bush’s team, which given the history doesn’t seem at all likely, Mr Bush will win this race going away.

I say this not only on the President’s speechmaming last night, but also on the rambling unfocused, almost catatonic response from Kerry last night. He reminded me of water, looking around for a place to leak in, and not being very successful about it.

And of course the polling numbers are on line with this prediction, as well. Bush will win the popular vote by at least 10-15%. How that will wide a margin of victory in electoral votes is another matter, though.

Watch for Kerry over the next 48 hours to be crying about how Bush and company “attacked my patriotism”. actually, that’s wrong. Mr. Bush and the remainder of the Republcians did nothing of the kind. It’s a fellow Democrat… John O’Neil, of the swiftees who did that.

In any event, I have many thoughts on the matter which are far too long to be butting here. I’m writing it up and will be posting it in my weekly long-form. Watch here for the link, Sunday night.

Toranto of the WSJ this morning:

“But the speech was badly received among the media elite. Especially scathing was blogger Andrew Sullivan:

“You see Zell Miller, his face rigid with anger, his eyes blazing with years of frustration as his Dixiecrat vision became slowly eclipsed among the Democrats. Remember who this man is: once a proud supporter of racial segregation, a man who lambasted LBJ for selling his soul to the negroes. His speech tonight was in this vein, a classic Dixiecrat speech, jammed with bald lies, straw men, and hateful rhetoric. As an immigrant to this country and as someone who has been to many Southern states and enjoyed astonishing hospitality and warmth and sophistication, I long dismissed some of the Northern stereotypes about the South. But Miller did his best to revive them. The man’s speech was not merely crude; it added whole universes to the word crude.”

Sullivan’s blasting Miller as a “Dixiecrat” is simply bizarre. The term Dixiecrat refers specifically to supporters of Strom Thurmond’s third-party presidential bid in 1948 (when, as Glenn Reynolds notes, Miller was not even old enough to vote), and more generally to the segregationist Democrats who succeeded in blocking most civil rights legislation until 1964. How in the world could Miller’s speech last night have been “a classic Dixiecrat speech” when it not only did not defend segregation (a question that was settled long ago), but did not even remotely allude to race? The speech was entirely about national security.

Jimmy boy, your first problem was that you tried to take Sullivan as a serious commentator. He lost that stature over a year ago, and has been relegated to comedy relief status. I’m starting to think the same way of Josh Marshall, as well, who apparently Toranto is also still trying to take seriously, for some unfathomable reason. Marshall can’t figure for the life of him why the Republicans would put him in the keynote slot. That point alone speaks volumes to me about the disconnect between the voters and Marhsall in particular but also the others pundits such as Sullivan, and for that matter Democrats as a whole.

On the other hand, perhaps their “stupid’ act is simply trying to minimize the damage done by a staunch Democrat going public with his non-support for the candidate, and in turn, the direction the party has taken the last 25 years. IN either case, the picture being painted here is not good.

It gets no better, indeed it gets worse, as you move up the leftist pundit ladder. Toranto points up part of the exchange between Miller and Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball:

Matthews: Do you believe, Senator, truthfully, that John Kerry wants to defend the country with spitballs? Do you believe that?

Miller: That was a metaphor, wasn’t it? Do you know what a metaphor is?
Matthews: Well, what do you mean by a metaphor?

Those city folks sure are sophisticated, aren’t they?

What did you expect from a party that tries to redefine the word “is”, Jim?

Yahoo! News – Text of President Bush’s RNC Speech

The line of the day from an anonymous reader:

After Miller and Cheney got done with John Kerry last night, he may actually be due for his first legit Purple Heart.

OK, he likely stole it from somewhere… but it’s still a great line.

Matt Hoy, wonders if the timing of the storms down in Florida is a ploy by the dirty tricksters at the DNC to divert attention away from the repblican convention.

Hmmmmm….

Hey, look, if some of what the moonbats on DU have been tossing around is to be taken with any degree of seriousness…..

Oh, never mind.

Stop by The Right One and wish Terry a Happy Birthday.

Broken Masterpieces notes a quote from former Mayor Ed Koch who is backing Predient Bush in this eelction, and not John Kerry. Says Koch

“I do not agree with him on any major domestic issue,” Koch wrote, “from tax policy to the recently enacted prescription drug law. These issues, however, pale in importance beside the menace of international terrorism, which threatens our very survival as a nation. President Bush has earned my vote because he has shown the resolve and courage necessary to wage the war against terrorism.”

Broken Masterpieces responds with:

“Again, this is what the election is all about; Ed Koch gets it, Ron Silver gets it and Zell Miller gets it.”

True. Thing is, though, I think Most Democrats get it. Trouble is, getting them past the knee-jery party loyalty to ADMIT IT, and act accordingly. That takes stones… and frankly I wonder if most Democrats have them, sometimes… enough at least for this purpose.

The WorldTribune.com reports;

“WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry has signaled a departure in U.S. policy regarding Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Kerry aides said that, if elected, his administration, in cooperation with the European Union, would offer a deal to Iran that would allow the Islamic republic to retain its nuclear facilities. In return, Teheran would have to pledge to return all imported nuclear fuel acquired for its reactor at Bushehr”

Can someone please remind these blithering idiots…(Kerry and the EU) that the radical Arab worl has invariably gone back on it’s word and flouted any agreements for the last 50 years? What in blue blazes maes them thing anything’s going to change now? Letting IRan operate Nuclear ANYTHING is tatamount to giving them persmission to develop a bomb. What, I ask, would prevent them or any extremist group from skimming off the top of what they ‘returned’ to get what they needed to make bombs?

If there were any doubts about how we needed any proof of Kerry’s idiocy, we have it now.

AP feed: Text of Zell Miller’s Speech at RNC

Totten’s just back from doing his cross country trek… Portland west, through to Chicago. Some nice snaps, and worth a peek, if you want to take a break.

First, no I didn’t see the Zell Miller/Chris Matthews death match. But I have seen the transcript. My own take is that Mathews is a well known leftist cheerleading idiot, and Miller went in expecting the standard fare from Matthews…. and misheard him because of the noise surrounding the remote. Matthews is, generally speaking, deserving of the bile from the right, and Miller came set to deliver at need. He apparently, based on mishearing Matthews, thought the time was right.

Captain Ed this morning, comments that:

“Matthews, without a doubt, will be seen as the one mainstream news media figure to have suffered the most damage to his reputation from this electoral cycle. He has acted in such a transparently partisan manner while hypocritically maintaining a non-partisan facade that Zell Miller easily penetrated that he can’t possibly recover his credibility with anyone except the zealous (Zell-less?) left. The rest of his audience, much like MS-NBC’s in general, will have left for other commentators less in love with themselves.”

Well, let’s be honest enough to say their entire coverage of this entire cycle.. not just Matthews, but the whole PMSNBC team has been lopsided. A look at their running commentary about last night is just an example. They’re seeking a ratings niche, and the leftists love it.

Now, if I manage to see a better copy of the transcript… and not the one PMSNBC has been posting… I may come away differently. But that’s my take for now.

Miller’s speech itself was indeed, one of the highpoints of the night. His rightious indignation atwhat has happened to his party shows. I have asked repeatedly over the years, where are the good Democrats.. the ones willing to put country over party… and I must say, it took a lot of prodding, but now we have one. Only 8 million left to go.

He was so agitated… annoyed about the whole thing, he apparently neglected to allow for audience feedback… a critical matter in political events. Miller is not an inexperienced speaker. I’ve heard him speak before, and he’s very good; I can only assume that what I saw last night was genuine anger. Perhaps he simply didn’t expect the applause he got, I dunno.

The media reaction to Miller this morning is predictable. “Miller is being mean spirited”, the press is wailing this morning. But he wasn’t being mean, he was angry. Miller’s annoyance with the Jimmy Carter/Ted Kennedy/John Kerry wing of his own party has been long known for years. Miller apparently figured Clinton was different which would explain the 1992 campaign. I’m willing to bet he felt betrayed by Clinton, and I’m certain he felt betrayed by Carter, Kennedy and Kerry.  I guess my question is… Zell, what kept ya? What in the world would keep someone in a party so long after they had moved so far away from the foundational beliefs that attracted Miller to them in the first place?

VP Dick Cheney performed as expected, and perhaps a little better. His speech delivery has never been exceptionally strong… the Captain calls his style ‘stoic’ and I guess that’s as good a description as any…. but he more than makes up for that, with his content.The passion is in his words.. not his voice. Even his humor has a dry feel to it… but it’s then when he’s at his most biting.

For all that, even his delivery was actually a bit stronger and more fluid than usual. Looks like those appearences on the road have reminded him how to handle a crowd… and he did. Still his staid and steady speaking style belies the passion in the words he uses… one has to listen almost on a second level to hear them. His points on tort reform were well timed, and should silence the leftwho has been complaining about a lack of domestic agenda… not that they’ll like this change much.

Line of the night… and one I predict will be heard often as we move to November… “John Kerry sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual. America sees two John Kerrys.”.

Nice to see Sara Evans and Brooks and Dunn on stage last night, too. I see Brooks and Dunn are doing the York County Fair on the 10th. We went there last year to see Trace Adkins… it’s a nice fair, and we may go there this year, too.

More comments as I think of them.

Update:

Update: Check out Q&O, who has some interesting comments about last night, as well.

Update2: Dalythoughts.com has won the link race on this one, with a fairly complete round-up of comments from around the ‘sphere… except of course BitsBlog.
Bad cop… no doughnut.