You know it’s bad when even Gollum is ringing the alarm bells.
(Daily Caller) – Who ever thought the saying, “It’s the economy stupid” from James Carville in 1992 would become a staple in presidential elections 20 years later?
That expression made its way into the campaign in 2008 and according to Carville it could be theme of the 2012 campaign as well as President Barack Obama seeks reelection. In an appearance Monday’s “Imus in the Morning” on the Fox Business Network, the former Clinton adviser said if improvements weren’t made in gains in the unemployment picture based on the May jobs number, it could be a rough road for the president.
“[L]ook, I don’t think anybody — if 54,000 new jobs is the new standard, it’s going to be a very, very rough 2012 for President Obama,” Carville said. “But three-month average was 160,000. If that is the case, then he will do OK. I can’t tell you what will happen. But yes, if this, if this last jobs number is an indication of future job numbers, it’s going to be very, very rough.”
…“It is going to be very difficult,” Carville said. “But the country, if that is what we are doing, this is gruesome on people. This unemployment rate for this long is humanitarian crisis of the first magnitude. This financial crisis, people have studied this by the way, they know that the things take this long to work their way through. The aftermath of these things — kind of an academic book that is dry entitled ‘This Time is Different.’ What it concluded it is not different this time. They studied it, the aftermath of the financial crisis. What we are going through is imminently predictable. But this is a terrible thing that has happened to people’s lives. I think the president at one level understands that, you know. But he is limited in what he can do. So we’ll just have to see. But it’s going to be hard. If 54,000 jobs is the new norm – this is going to be very, very tough. Some people say it just might be one more thing. We don’t know.”