Kerry is right.
However, I'll grant you that it's possible to spin the numbers to make Bush look good. For example, if you're only concerned with short-term figures, then sure, the stats look promising. The numbers are at least moving in the right direction. However, if you look at Bush's presidency as a whole, his performance has been poor, as Kerry correctly points out.
Since Bush took office:
- There are 900,000 FEWER jobs in America than when Bush was sworn in. That figure includes the August numbers. Unless things turn around, Bush will be the first president since the Great Depression to face re-election without creating a single job.
- The number of Americans without medical insurance has increased by 5.1 million.
- The unemployment rate, while dropping, is still well above the 4.0 per cent figure in August 2000 under Clinton.
- Bush has squandered the surplus that Clinton left and is now running a half trillion dollar deficit, the biggest in history.
While recent economic indicators are encouraging, you'd have to be pretty naive (or biased because of your political leanings) to think that Bush's performance on the economic front has been anything better than mediocre. In fact, it has been downright poor.