Pro-Democrat Statistics

[Bak]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/docpage-recoverystats1.jpg

 

http://www.thenation.com//images/media/doc/09c/1247699595-xlarge.jpg

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BrNJocQYWtw/R1RGTtWTP1I/AAAAAAAAAAY/l8IcY8aOU4s/s1600-R/national%2Bdebt%2Bchart.gif

 

more jobs, lower debts; vote democrat!

[SeVeR]

Well the Republicans always want to fight a war.

[Simulacrum]

That's nothing. By far the biggest part of the deficit increases* under Bush were tax cuts and Medicare Part D.

 

*I say increases, but Bush was really creating a new deficit after Clinton left with a surplus.

[NBVegita]

Of course if you added Obama to the National Debt scale it would be considerably higher than Bush's.

 

Also the numbers for the jobs are from the democratic calculation of "Jobs saved or created" which any statistician worth his muster knows is code for "let's make up any number and pass it off because you cannot possibly measure the number of jobs 'saved'". Also note that the top graph shows the natural course of any recession (you can simply only loose so many jobs before you cannot keep losing jobs at the same pace) and also shows that unemployment did not decrease during that time except during one period. If you also note the graph illustrates that as job loss was decreasing before Obama could even pass anything to influence the economy.

 

The second graph also doesn't show you that the 1992-2000 new jobs were propagated by the .com bubble which promptly burst in 2001 as it needed to. I think the massive surplus of jobs from 39-52 is pretty self evident.

 

Simply put, take everything with a grain of salt. Both sides will do their best to "massage" the data to prove a point.

[»Xog]

You totally should have said mustard.

[»D1st0rt]

political statistics are bullshit

[Bak]

it seems like they could be an objective way to measure the outcomes, rather than promises of a specific party. The trick is to first think of the thing you're interested in finding out, then research it to get the statistics, not the other way around.

[Dr Brain]

Statistics are too easily twisted to be inherently meaningful.

[Simulacrum]

For example, the object of the game is not necessarily to minimize the budget deficit, particularly in the short term. I don't think anyone criticizes FDR for selling war bonds, and Democrats generally don't criticize Obama for the stimulus package. Edited February 26, 2010 by Simulacrum

[»freakmonger]

Statistics are too easily twisted to be inherently meaningful.

 

exactly