I think most people would agree that facts are important. As the saying goes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts.

This morning, three White House advisors appeared on three different morning shows and touted three different figures on how many jobs were created and, eh "saved." 

Axelrod, on CNN’s State of the Union: “But understand that, in this recession that began at the beginning of 2007, we've lost 7 million jobs. Now, the Recovery Act the president passed has created more than — or saved more than 2 million jobs. But against 7 million, you know, that — that is — it is cold comfort to those who still are looking.”

Jarrett, on NBC’s Meet the Press: “The Recovery Act saved thousands and thousands of jobs. There are school teachers and firemen and— and— teachers all across our country, policemen, who have jobs today because of that recovery act. We're investing in infrastructure. We're investing in public education so that our kids can compete going forth into the next— generation.”

Gibbs, on “Fox News Sunday”: “Well, Chris, let's take for instance the example you just used of the stimulus package. We had four quarters of economic regression in terms of growth, right? Just last quarter, we finally saw the first positive economic job growth in more than a year. Largely as a result of the recovery plan that's put money back into our economy, that saved or created 1.5 million jobs.”

Politics is getting in the way of reality. Of course the administration would like to show progress on the jobs front but that simply isn't possible. Since Barack Obama has become president, the U.S. economy has shed nearly 5 million jobs. The administration fabricated a statistic called "jobs created or saved" because they knew the recession would continue well into Obama's first term and they needed a way to spin the jobs numbers in a positive light.

In other words, they are making up their own facts. That's why nobody in the administration knows exactly how many jobs were "created or saved." The real answer is none.

Read more at The Politico.

Obama supporter "Ellie Light" has been a very busy woman... astroturfing newspapers around the country with her pro-Obama letters. David Axelrod must be proud.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer...

In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical “Letters to the Editor” in support of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers.Every letter claimed a different residence for Light that happened to be in the newspaper’s circulation area.

“It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything,” said a letter from alleged Philadelphian Ellie Light, that was published in the Jan. 19 edition of The Philadelphia Daily News.

A letter from Light in the Jan. 20 edition of the San Francisco Examiner concluded with an identical sentence, but with an address for Light all the way across the country in Daly City, California.

Variations of Light’s letter ran in Ohio's Mansfield News Journal on Jan. 13, with Light claiming an address in Mansfield; in New Mexico's Ruidoso News on Jan. 12, claiming an address in Three Rivers; in South Carolina's The Sun News  on Jan. 18, claiming an address in Myrtle Beach; and in the Daily News Leader of Staunton, Virginia on Jan. 15, claiming an address in Waynesboro. Her publications list includes other papers in Ohio, West Virginia, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and California, all claiming separate addresses.

Light – who e-mailed an identical missive to this reporter on Jan. 16 without listing a hometown – would not answer e-mailed questions about the address discrepancies in newspapers that ran her letter, or her identity, although she did say she wasn’t a former co-worker of this reporter’s who had a similar name.

"I do not write as a representative of any organization," she said in an e-mail. "The letter I wrote was motivated by surprise and wonderment at the absence of any media support for our President, who won a record-breaking election by a landslide less than 18 months ago, and now, seems to be abandoned by all, supposedly for the infantile reason that he couldn’t make all of Bush’s errors disappear in one day."

Media support? The job of the news media is to hold public officials accountable for their actions. They are supposed to be watch-dogs, not cheerleaders for one side or the other.

Update on Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 9:51AM by Jeff

Patterico.com has identified "Ellie Light" letters in 62 publications in 29 states and the District of Columbia plus 3 national publications and a Yahoo link and 2 foreign publications. Oh my!!

 

 

From today's Boston Globe...

"Friends and fellow citizens, I'm Scott Brown, I'm from Wrentham, I drive a truck and I'm asking for your vote," said Brown, who has made much of the fact that he owns a pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it.

But Obama told people at the Boston rally, "You've got to look under the hood," saying that Brown had a record of voting with the Republicans 96 percent of the time and it would be "hard to suggest" he would be independent from the Republican agenda.

Then Barack Obama mocked Brown's ads...

"He's driving his truck around the commonwealth and he says that he gets you," Obama said of state Sen. Scott Brown (R).

"Everybody can run slick games," he added. "Forget the truck. Anybody can buy a truck."

Scott Brown responded to Obama today...

"Mr. President, unfortunately in this economy, not everybody can buy a truck. My goal is to change that by cutting spending, lowering taxes and letting people keep more of their own money."

It's quips like this one that will lead Brown to victory tomorrow.

If the Democrats have lost Jack Cafferty, they are in big, big trouble.

Cafferty may have lost hope in change, but I doubt he wants a refund.

Ed Morrissey at Hotair.com is having a caption contest using this photo of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

In case you are wondering, Obama's eyes are open. For a closeup, visit the White House's Flickr account.

Mark Steyn is one of my favorite columnists because he effortlessly mixes humor with top-notch political and cultural observations.

His most recent column is spot on...

On Christmas Day, a gentleman from Nigeria succeeded (effortlessly) in boarding a flight to Detroit with a bomb in his underwear. Pretty funny, huh?

But the Pantybomber wasn’t the big joke. The real laugh was the United States government. The global hyperpower spent the next week making itself a laughingstock to the entire planet.

[...]

But by then the president of the United States had also taken to the airwaves. For three days, he had remained silent — which I believe is a world record for the 44th president. Since Jan. 20, 2009, it's been difficult to switch on the TV and not find him yakking — accepting an award in Oslo for not being George W. Bush, doing Special Olympics gags with Jay Leno, apologizing for America to some dictator or other... But across the electric wires an eerie still had descended. And when the president finally spoke, even making allowances for his usual detached cool, he sounded less like a commander-in-chief addressing the nation after an attempted attack than an assistant DA at a Cook County press conference announcing a drug bust: "Here's what we know so far... As the plane made its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device... The suspect was immediately subdued... The suspect is now in custody and has been charged." Etc, etc, piling up one desiccated legalism on another: "Allegedly..." "suspect..." "charged..." The president can’t tell an allegedly alleged suspect (which is what he is in Obama fantasy-land) from an enemy combatant (which is what he is in cold hard reality). But worse than the complacent cop-show jargonizing was a phrase it’s hard to read as anything other than a deliberate attempt to mislead the public: The president referred to the Knickerbomber as an "isolated extremist." By this time, it was already clear that young Umar had been radicalized by jihadist networks in London and fast-tracked to training in Yemen by terror operatives who understood the potentially high value of a Westernized Muslim with excellent English from a respectable family. Yet President Obama tried to pass him off as some sort of lone misfit who wakes up one morning and goes bananas. Could happen to anyone.

Read it all at NRO.

BigGovernment.com has an interesting piece on presidential optics and how Barack Obama's handlers have done him a great disservice during his Christmas vacation in Hawaii.

In Obama's absence, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were sent out on the Sunday talk shows (except for Fox) to spin the administration line that "the system worked."

That PR strategy was mocked across the boards, forcing the administration to put Obama in front of the cameras for the first time since he went on vacation.

He's "not going to rest" until the terrorists are brought to justiceObama’s presentation Monday was emotionless in delivery and casual in its presentation. Wearing an open collar shirt, Obama looked like a man who showed up at a formal club without the required attire and was forced to don the club jacket hanging in the closet to get in.

Obama also seemed painfully uncomfortable without his TelePrompter security blanket. He struggled with the text at times and reflexively swiveled his head from side-to-side even as he stared down at the the printed remarks laid out on the podium before him.

That Obama went golfing right after he told the American people he "will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable" undermined whatever seriousness of purpose the administration was trying to convey.

When internal reviews by the administration started to show that the government had enough information to stop the terror attack before it happened but failed to act, Obama was hustled back before the cameras the next day to get in front of the bad news–standard PR disaster strategy. However, Obama was hustled in front of the cameras so fast the satellite feeds weren’t ready so the cable networks went live with only a ghostly audio address by a ticked-off sounding Obama. Video of the speech was shown later in the day but the damage was done. Team Obama was flailing.

Presidential iconography matters because most of us will never have the opportunity to witness the president at work, engaging his advisors and making decisions on our behalf. The clumsiness in which they've handled the recent terror attack only underscores the growing perception that Obama and his team are in over their heads and not particularly competent.

Read more at BigGovernment.com.

Update on Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 12:20PM by Jeff

The Politico weighs in on Obama's unforced error.

From ABC News' The Blotter...

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Two things. First, art therapy? WTF? One can only imagine the vivid "art" they created while in "art therapy." I do know one thing for sure. If they were dead (or still in prison), they couldn't have planned the Northwest Air attack.

Second, President Obama campaigned on the issue of closing Guantanamo Bay. When he took office he signed an executive order closing it (it's still open by the way).

"The message we are sending around the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism, and we are going to do so vigilantly; we are going to do so effectively; and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals." -- President Obama

Hmm... it sounds like Bush and Cheney were already doing that. After all, our culture believes that criminals, even dangerous ones like murderers, rapists, pedophiles and Islamic terrorists, can be rehabilitated through pseudo-sciences like psychology and art therapy. Do you know what the terrorists think of our ideals? They laugh their asses off while they plan their next big attack.