THE EFFICIENT, SMART, INTELLIGENT OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DEPT:
At least, that's what all of the Obama bunch's advocates and defenders have claimed for it the last couple of years--how smart Obama and all the people around him were. But you wouldn't know it these days. Consider:
How many jobs have you guys saved again?:
"The White House trumpeted job figures released last month, saying they proved the administration is on track to save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. But Earl Devaney, whose agency collected and released the data, said Thursday there are too many errors to know how many jobs have been created. Under questioning on Capitol Hill, he agreed the White House should have acknowledged the doubt surrounding the numbers."
Whoops. But then there are also all the problems to be found on the administration's recovery.gov website:
"Arizona's page, for example, showed the state's 52nd, 15th and 86th congressional districts received hundreds of thousands of dollars in stimulus money, according to CNN affiliate KNXV. However, no such districts exist in Arizona, which has only eight congressional districts. A report released Wednesday by the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity said it found such errors on pages for all 50 states, four territories and the District of Columbia. More than $6.4 billion in stimulus funds were shown as being spent -- and more than 28,420 jobs saved or created -- in 440 false districts, it said."
Read the whole thing. Note that the great champion of responsibility and accountability, Vice-President Biden, blamed everybody but the administration for what went wrong.
Meanwhile, the latest Rasmussen Poll on the generic congressional ballot for the 2010 election STILL shows Republicans leading.
And Public Policy Polling, in results out today, finds that only 40% of Americans support Obama's positions on health care reform; 52% are in opposition.
No good news for the president can be found in the latest Fox News Poll, either--there, his approval rating is down to 46%, a new low.
NBA DIARY:
The Detroit Pistons are struggling. They've lost 3 in a row, 2 of them on a tough West Coast swing which still continues. The latest loss was to Portland, 87-81. Portland has a good team. But the Pistons' main problem is that they dig too deep of a hole for themselves early in games, and can't complete a comeback. Last night they trailed by 20. Late in the game the Pistons cut the lead to 1. Part of this lies in the fact that this remains a young team trying to learn to play together...
The other part of it is that the Pistons have now played something like 4 games in 6 nights. Why does the NBA have such killer schedules at times?
But the Dallas Mavericks are now 9-3, as they beat San Antonio last night in OT 99-94. Dirk Nowitzki scores 41 points, including 11 in OT. He's a leader. And the Mavs won despite having 3 starters out.
