In fact, I'm going to start my own "if Bush had done it file." Sure, after 5+ months in office, there have already been a lot of incidences I could have put in this file. Never fear, the audacity and hubris of the Obama administration will surely give me plenty of opportunity to invoke if W had done it.
William McGurn calls attention (because liberals & the media--but I repeat myself--ignore the ridiculousness of the claim) to Obama's ludicrous claim that he has "created or saved" tens of thousands of jobs.
Now, something's wrong when the president invokes a formula that makes it impossible for him to be wrong and it goes largely unchallenged. It's true that almost any government spending will create some jobs and save others. But as Milton Friedman once pointed out, that doesn't tell you much: The government, after all, can create jobs by hiring people to dig holes and fill them in.
If the "saved or created" formula looks brilliant, it's only because Mr. Obama and his team are not being called on their claims. And don't expect much to change. So long as the news continues to repeat the administration's line that the stimulus has already "saved or created" 150,000 jobs over a time period when the U.S. economy suffered an overall job loss 10 times that number, the White House would be insane to give up a formula that allows them to spin job losses into jobs saved.
These sorts of claims are of a piece with the re-branding of "global warming" as "climate change." What's that you say? Facts don't fit your narrative? No matter. Just change the narrative such that whatever happens, you can claim explanatory foreknowledge.
"Saved or created" & "climate change." Wow. And they say conservatives are gullible and dumb.
