early and often

Jack Welch and the Unemployment-Rate Truthers [Updated]

Oh, Jack.

President Obama sure caught a break today: The unemployment rate dove down to 7.8 percent — the first time it’s gone below 8 percent since the start of Obama’s presidency — on the strength of 114,000 jobs added in September and big upward revisions for July and August. But was it really a matter of good timing, or was it … a conspiracy? Isn’t it a little too convenient that the economy is, you know, improving? The highly respected (at least up until this morning) former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch (above), seems to think so. (Bloomberg reports that Welch’s secretary says that “the retired CEO is the only one with access to the Twitter account and is now unavailable for the rest of the day in meetings.”) But he’s hardly alone. The unemployment-rate truthers are out in full force on Twitter this morning.

Update: Actual congressman Allen West joins the Truth Squad. Who’s shocked? Nah, neither are we.

Update II: John McCain joins the so-called “jobbers” in an interview on CNBC: “I wouldn’t put anything past this admin.”

Update III: Forget that last update, McCain was referring to something else.

Jack Welch and the Unemployment-Rate Truthers