So... is Romney a Moderate again?

[Beet]

Just pointing out that shifting to the center/shifting towards Obama's position/shifting towards the status quo, is always an implicit endorsement of it. Comparatively. Yes, there are still 'change' issues at stake in the election, but Romney wasn't winning on them.

[TomC]

Furthermore, 50% of college graduates this year have been unable to find work.

Another Romney lie. You seriously want to claim this guy understands math?

http://studentactivism.net/2012/10/04/romney-unemployment/

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[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Furthermore, 50% of college graduates this year have been unable to find work.

Another Romney lie. You seriously want to claim this guy understands math?

http://studentactivism.net/2012/10/04/romney-unemployment/

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That doesn't actually refute the claim.

[Lief 🗽]

Romney will be whatever you want him to be, sugar.

[TomC]

Furthermore, 50% of college graduates this year have been unable to find work.

Another Romney lie. You seriously want to claim this guy understands math?

http://studentactivism.net/2012/10/04/romney-unemployment/

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That doesn't actually refute the claim.

It certainly does unless "unable to find work" means "unable to find the exact job you want."

[Politico]

Furthermore, 50% of college graduates this year have been unable to find work.

Another Romney lie. You seriously want to claim this guy understands math?

http://studentactivism.net/2012/10/04/romney-unemployment/

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He was talking about 50% of people who graduated in May 2012. We're on a downturn again. This year is worse than last year, and last year was worse than the year before. For example, only 114,000 jobs were created in September of this year whereas over 200,000 jobs were created in September of last year.

Trust me, Obama and Co. would be all over this if it were untrue.

BTW, I may be wrong, but I think college graduates did not expect to finish their degree only to end repeating ad nauseum "do you want fries with that?" in the Obama Economy.

With regards to young gay people, how are they ever going to have a successful relationship, let alone a successful marriage, if they cannot even start a successful career?

This economy is not working for anybody except those in Washington, DC, the masters of this "trickle-down government" approach. Romney will change this because we must change if we want any hope of actually moving forward over the next four years.

[Ichabod]

With regards to young gay people, how are they ever going to have a successful relationship, let alone a successful marriage, if they cannot even start a successful career?

I'm sorry but what is the logic of this statement?

[TomC]

Furthermore, 50% of college graduates this year have been unable to find work.

Another Romney lie. You seriously want to claim this guy understands math?

http://studentactivism.net/2012/10/04/romney-unemployment/

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He was talking about 50% of people who graduated in May 2012. We're on a downturn again. This year is worse than last year, and last year was worse than the year before. For example, only 114,000 jobs were created in September of this year whereas over 200,000 jobs were created in September of last year.

Trust me, Obama and Co. would be all over this if it were untrue.

I'm not convinced they would be all over it. I'd love to see the data that says 50% of May 2012 college grads are unemployed- I seriously doubt info like that is available yet. The overall jobs numbers you cite are a different figure. It's your claim- you back it up. Where's the proof that shows that figure is anywhere near true?

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/fact-check-presidential-debate-missteps-155346190.html

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I think one graduation speaker told them to borrow money from their parents.

[Politico]

With regards to young gay people, how are they ever going to have a successful relationship, let alone a successful marriage, if they cannot even start a successful career?

I'm sorry but what is the logic of this statement?

The logic: Being unable to find a job is a bit more troublesome than not being able to marry somebody, especially since not many people are going to want to be in a relationship with you, let alone marry you, if you cannot find a job in the Obama Economy.

[TomC]

Wait- did Romney flp flop on gay marriage? You can get married to someone of the same gender if you have a job? Otherwise, wtf?

[Politico]

Furthermore, 50% of college graduates this year have been unable to find work.

Another Romney lie. You seriously want to claim this guy understands math?

http://studentactivism.net/2012/10/04/romney-unemployment/

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He was talking about 50% of people who graduated in May 2012. We're on a downturn again. This year is worse than last year, and last year was worse than the year before. For example, only 114,000 jobs were created in September of this year whereas over 200,000 jobs were created in September of last year.

Trust me, Obama and Co. would be all over this if it were untrue.

I'm not convinced they would be all over it.

It is a figure that is devastating for the youth vote, so of course they'd be yelling loud about this one if the employment picture were good for recent grads. It is not.

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Look at the trend:



We're flat-lining again. This is not good. The recovery has not even matched the weak recovery in the early/mid 2000s, and that recession was NOWHERE near as bad as this one. We need 262,000 jobs per month for an extended period just to eventually break-even:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-needs-generate-262k-jobs-each-month-get-back-breakeven

It would take 17 years for 114,000 jobs per month to create 23 million jobs. 17 years!

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Obama's plan is to get them dependent upon food stamps for life. Maybe give them an Obama Phone, too...

[Politico]

Wait- did Romney flp flop on gay marriage? You can get married to someone of the same gender if you have a job?

You can in Massachusetts. Romney believes marriage is between a man and a woman, just as Obama did in 2008, but he also believes that gay marriage is a state issue, not a federal issue.

Like everybody else, gays are struggling in this economy. Lack of job opportunities is the number one problem facing gay people, not gay marriage.

[Beet]

Romney was referring to this study (the link appears to be a summary of the study; I could not find the actual 50+ percent number in there, but it is what websites cite as the origin of Romney's claim) by Paul Harrington and Neeta Fogg of Drexel University, which appeared in the Higher Education Review in 2011.

The Monkey Cage, a blog written by actual political scientists who know this stuff (social science studies) better than journalists, has given an analysis of the claim.

In particular, they note:

"t is only fair to note that another post in The Atlantic by Jordan Weissmann notes that in 2000 this figure was “at a low of 41 percent, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.” Obviously an increase from 41% to 54% of recent college graduates being unemployed or underemployed is hardly trivial, but only Weissmann seems to have provided the comparison which shows that even in boom times, 40% of recent college graduates have troubles in the job market. Note that the 2000 figure is from before the dot.com recession, when the overall unemployment rate was about 4%. "

So basically, under Harrington's standards, even in 2000, 40 percent of college graduates would be unable to find work.

The blog goes on to note:

"Fogg and Harrington define underemployment (which they call mal-employment) as a college graduate not being employed in an occupation “which utilize(s) the skills and knowledge that are commonly thought to be acquired through a college education.” (p. 55-56). While that article does not specify what such occupations are, it does note that the occupations “generally include profession, technical, managerial and high-level sales occupations….” (p. 55). Of course many of these require an advanced degree, so recent college graduates under age 25 are unlikely to be eligible for such occupations."

In another paragraph, the authors suggest that 'mal-employment' (what they measure) is any work that is 'substandard in some way.'

In any case, 'can't find work' is obviously incorrect when it comes to these people.

[TomC]

No, you misunderstood what data I was asking you for. Fact checkers seem to think Romney's college grad numbers are from a 2011 report. I provided two sources to show that's not accurate. If he's truly using May 2012 grads in this claim, prove to me he's not pulling this claim out of his ass. Where has anyone other than Romney said this about May 2012 grads?

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[Politico]

No, you misunderstood what data I was asking you for. Fact checkers seem to think Romney's college grad numbers are from a 2011 report. I provided two sources to show that's not accurate. If he's truly using May 2012 grads in this claim, prove to me he's not pulling this claim out of his ass. Where has anyone other than Romney said this about May 2012 grads?

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We've gone from 35 million people to 47 million people on food stamps. Romney misspoke. Romney admits he was wrong. Romney has been around the country, and realizes that the vast majority of people on food stamps do not like being dependent upon government. These people want to be independent again. This will not happen until job opportunities return. The trickle-government approach out of Washington just is not cutting it. It's time to change course.

[Beet]

Oh, I see what the Associated Press did. The 50 percent number never appears in the report, the AP appears to have added underemployed to the report's 40 percent figure for mal-employed to reach its own number. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure that's even accurate, because the unemployment rate is a share of the labor force, but the malemployment rate defined by Fodd & Harrington are as a percentage of employed bachelor's degree holders. So I hope that's not what the AP did. In any case, it never provided the logic of its analysis.

[TomC]

No, you misunderstood what data I was asking you for. Fact checkers seem to think Romney's college grad numbers are from a 2011 report. I provided two sources to show that's not accurate. If he's truly using May 2012 grads in this claim, prove to me he's not pulling this claim out of his ass. Where has anyone other than Romney said this about May 2012 grads?

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Romney misspoke. Romney admits he was wrong.

[Beet]

The recovery has not even matched the weak recovery in the early/mid 2000s, and that recession was NOWHERE near as bad as this one.

The early/mid 2000s 'recovery' was based on a credit bubble, and the deflation of that bubble is precisely what's holding back this recovery from being faster. But in terms of jobs, this recovery has actually been more vigorous than the early/mid 2000's recovery. In terms of private sector jobs, the difference is even more dramatic.

[Sol]

Wait- did Romney flp flop on gay marriage? You can get married to someone of the same gender if you have a job?

You can in Massachusetts. Romney believes marriage is between a man and a woman, just as Obama did in 2008, but he also believes that gay marriage is a state issue, not a federal issue.

Like everybody else, gays are struggling in this economy. Lack of job opportunities is the number one problem facing gay people, not gay marriage.

Of course, LGBT people would be struggling less in this economy if employment and housing discrimination was illegal...

[TomC]

The recovery has not even matched the weak recovery in the early/mid 2000s, and that recession was NOWHERE near as bad as this one.

The early/mid 2000s 'recovery' was based on a credit bubble, and the deflation of that bubble is precisely what's holding back this recovery from being faster. But in terms of jobs, this recovery has actually been more vigorous than the early/mid 2000's recovery. In terms of private sector jobs, the difference is even more dramatic.

Doesn't the graph he himself posted even prove the recovery is more vigorous. I'd love to see a copy of Politico's graph above with the point shown where Obama enters office.

[Beet]

The recovery has not even matched the weak recovery in the early/mid 2000s, and that recession was NOWHERE near as bad as this one.

The early/mid 2000s 'recovery' was based on a credit bubble, and the deflation of that bubble is precisely what's holding back this recovery from being faster. But in terms of jobs, this recovery has actually been more vigorous than the early/mid 2000's recovery. In terms of private sector jobs, the difference is even more dramatic.

Doesn't the graph he himself posted even prove the recovery is more vigorous. I'd love to see a copy of Politico's graph above with the point shown where Obama enters office.

1/09 is clearly marked on the chart