Claim: "Doing Fine" Was "Taken Out of Context"

In what sense? In this exchange, a reporter asks Carney about this, and seems to concede it was "out of context" (though maybe I'm wrong in that interpretation).

In context, Obama said the private economy was adding jobs, cited some figure for that, asserted the "private sector is doing fine," then said the problem is in state and local government's layoffs of public sector workers.

Indeed, Carney repeats all that here, minus the "private sector is doing fine" quote.

Obama's words aren't being taken out of context-- the "context" is that he was making just this very argument, that the public sector is the troubled one, and the private sector is healthy.

At any rate, the reporter wants to know if Obama himself will refuse to take an "unflattering" sentence of Romney's and then pounce on it. Carney refuses to answer the "hypothetical."

Carney also says reporters should "do their jobs" and report context.

The context of Obama's statement, that the private sector is doing fine, was an argument advancing the proposition that the private sector is doing fine.

There's the context.

By the way, I'm on Comeback Alert. Obama, and the press, will attempt to paint a new narrative of Obama coming back strong after a bad few weeks.

This always happens, and to some extent, it will be true: Obama must have some weeks that are better than the last two. The last two have been like a horror movie for him. Everything bad they hoped would not happen, did happen.

But I'll be on the lookout for goofy overstatements about this, of wishcasting, of attempting to portray a meh week as a Comeback.

Obama's very bad two weeks reminded me of Tom Cruise's trash-talk in The Color of Money. Specifically: "It's like a nightmare, isn't it? And it keeps getting worse."

I can't find that stupid scene, but this is sort of fun.

posted by Ace at 03:03 PM

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