How DARE You Be Positive and Optimistic About America!

Eric Allie, 6/12/12:

What he actually said was

The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. Often times cuts initiated by, you know, Governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don’t have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in.

And that has the advantage of being true -- job creation in the private sector could be better (it always could be better, obviously), but jobs are still being lost due to cost-cutting in the public sector on the local and state levels, which pushes down the overall totals. (And public-sector jobs for things like construction tend to not only keep skilled blue-collar workers employed during tough times, but also has a multiplier effect by updating and strengthening our infrastructure.)

Again, look up what prior Republican Presidents -- Reagan, Bush I, Bush II -- did for local governments during the recessions in their terms, and what Obama's been able to accomplish this time around; the differences are startling. (Call him incompetent if you want -- there's certainly a strong argument to be made that way -- but he's certainly not a huge spender.)