GOP candidates know they’re lying
I went on a food-buying safari to a supermarket on Super Bowl Sunday morning.
It’s one of those days when you could take your life into your own hands.
Hundreds of brave, bargain-hunting shoppers attack everything on sale.
While there, I happened to stop in the coffee aisle.
It was there that I saw that “stare.”
Some guy was so perplexed by the kinds and qualities of coffee on those shelves, that he appeared to be paralyzed.
Coffee used to just be coffee. There used to be caffeinated or decaffeinated, ground or whole bean. That’s it.
It now comes in such a staggering array of flavors and textures that I was afraid that guy would miss the Super Bowl’s kick-off before he reached the check-out line.
It’s that way for a lot of things in America.
No matter what big food store you walk into, you’ll find a valley of cereal; an entire island of bread, and enough meat to feed an army.
Yet, all of those Republican presidential candidates are forever trying to convince us that our country is about to survive only on vats of sour milk.
It’s just not that way. Period.
I’ve frequently noted that the bread lines of the Great Depression, bore no resemblance to the lines at Best Buy on Black Friday since the Great Recession.
“Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” has been replaced by, “Brother can you help me up. I just got trampled by somebody reaching for a new wide-screen TV.”
That’s not saying there’s no need to completely recover from the worst economy since the Great Depression.
But the near-collapse of the U.S. economy, or the recovery from it, has never, for the average American, been as bad as Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Bush or (pick a Republican candidate) says it is.
Look at unemployment.
“The number’s probably 28,29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent,” says Donald Trump.
See what I mean.
Real unemployment number is at 5 percent.
That’s 2.8 percent lower than the day President Obama took office.
But more importantly, that’s 37 percent lower than the number Trump pulled out.
The Super Bowl presents a less-than-dire portrait of the state of American commerce.
True, many companies are hurting since 2009, but many more aren’t.
Why else would dozens of companies pay $5 million (not counting production costs) for a 30 second ad that sells beer, cars or junk food?
The night before the big game, Marco Rubio, the Florida senator and broken record, gave pause to his supporters by repeatedly reciting the claim that Obama, “Knows exactly what he’s doing.” That he’s been “undergoing a systematic effort to change the country,” – and specifically for the worse.
But the facts bely that kind of mantra.
Since Obama took office, nine million Americans have found work; the stock markets have thrived (the Dow Jones Industrial Average has also more than doubled); corporate profits have skyrocketed; homicides and violent crimes are down; there’s been a 15.3 million drop in uninsured Americans; domestic oil production is up by 87 percent: wind and solar power are up by 273 percent; and, in case you haven’t noticed, you’re paying less for a tank of gasoline in years. Donald Trump likes to talk about how, since Obama took office, countries around the world don’t respect the United States.
Wrong!
According to the latest fact-check, the percentage of foreigners who claim to approve of this country is up in most places, and most notably, Pakistan, Turkey, Mexico, Japan, Britain, France, and yes, even Israel – which stands at 81 percent, according to a recent poll there.
And then there’s this constant blather about how the president is trying to take all of our guns away.
If he’s trying to do that, I’ll admit he’s failing in that regard, since gun ownership has, as gauged by criminal background checks, risen by 58 percent since 2008.
Each of those candidates know what they’re doing by fudging facts.
Maybe they should just walk into a supermarket and take a look around.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net