It's not that...

it surprised me that the White House would try to distance themselves from the pronouncement that just maybe we wouldn't actually see the creation of 2.6 million new jobs this year as they promised. I think perhaps three whole people (and only one of them isn't in a mental hospital) thought this was even within the realm of far-out possibility.

Nor should have it surprised me that the first thing they did upon announcing it was to say that it was not Mr. Bush's fault because he is not, after all, a statistician. However, it floors me that this president can take responsibility for nothing.

He's at the point where if a member of the press corps asked him if it was true he impregnated his wife with twins some 22 years ago, he'd hedge and say something about bad intelligence. A man who can call Vietnam a political war while insisting his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not passes the line from liar to something either pathological or criminal.

I used to think Reagan was the king of no accountability (his favorite phrase was "I don't remember" and he was allowed to get away with it again and again) but Bush aced this at a much younger age.

But consider for a moment what it means when the government makes such a broadly optimistic pronouncement only to withdraw it in a matter of days. I was amazed to see that the blue chips were rallying and that the NASDAQ was still in the five digits following that. However, I don't think this bodes well... and I rarely hear anyone in this administration discuss the truly dismal standing of the American dollar in the world. We're in quite terrible shape.