The (Expensive) Irresponsibility of Our Dear Misleader

(This is being posted late due to a Blogger outage. But since the market went down another 115 points today, it is that much more timely.)

It’s bad enough that Obama began his administration with a roughly 1 trillion dollar stimulus program that has stimulated little but the size of the federal government and its deficits. He has already proven himself the most financially irresponsible president in history – quite an accomplishment for less than 18 months.

But last Wednesday he had to add to his record of financial irresponsibility by touting the upcoming employment number as a big one. Biden chimed in, too. Cheered, the stock market went up 225 Dow points.

But then Friday came, and the job gains were almost entirely census workers. Private employment was anemic. Sorely disappointed, the market went down 324 points.

Obama’s irresponsible talk Wednesday is inexcusable. It is contributing to turmoil in the financial markets. And it was pointless. If the jobs number was going to be so good, then wait until it comes out and then tout it. Don’t set the markets up for a disappointment.

What Obama did is also unpresidential. My memory is not the best, but I cannot ever recall a president touting an employment number beforehand like Obama did. There’s a good reason for that, and we saw it last Friday.

It’s not for nothing that Obama is now dubbed The Great Misleader.