TERRE HAUTE —
It takes willpower of Herculean strength to rationally digest any form of national news — positive or negative — in this current political season. Every topic seems to possess campaign implications.
Accepting that reality, the monthly jobs report issued Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor offered good news for, seemingly, all Americans.
The unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September. It stood at 8.1 percent in August, and — this time — the improved number was not the result of more Americans giving up their job search and falling out of the labor force statistics. Instead, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation’s jobless rate was able to show improvement, even though 418,000 more people entered the workforce.
In the government’s survey of employers, they created 114,000 new jobs last month. Important as those employment opportunities are to the American economy, the level of job creation necessary to match population growth is around 125,000 a month. So, the numbers are far from glowing.
Still, the drop of the unemployment rate below the 8-percent mark is notable. The 7.8-percent rate is the lowest since January 2009, when the Great Recession was beginning to infiltrate almost every sector of the economy.
Of course, January 2009, was also the moment when President Obama took office. The campaigns of both the president and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney were connecting the dots between the last 7.8-percent unemployment picture in ’09 and Friday’s numbers.
On a campaign stop Friday in Virginia, Obama said, according to a Washington Post report, “This morning, we found out the unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest level since I took office. More Americans entered the workforce, more people are getting jobs. Now, every month reminds us we’ve still got too many of our friends and neighbors looking for work, too many middle-class families struggling to pay bills.”
Romney, also in Virginia, countered, saying in the same Post report, “The reason [the jobless rate] has come down is primarily due to the fact that more people have just stopped looking for work. … If the same share of people were participating in the workforce today as on the day the president got elected, our unemployment rate would be around 11 percent.”
Another Republican, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, acknowledged the “encouraging news,” but added, “it simply isn’t good enough.”
As voters, Americans can choose from those two political viewpoints. As Cantor pointed out, a 7.8-percent unemployment rate “should not be cause for celebration.” Romney’s camp continues to contend that any improvement in the economy under Obama has come far too slowly, and that the glacial recovery has been thwarted by the president’s policies.
Obama makes his case with the reminder that the tailspin he inherited sent the nation into an economic pit deeper than any other since the Depression, and the climb out of that hole could not be completed in two or three years. Steady growth toward a healthier, wiser economy is happening, as frustratingly slow as its been.
Regardless, both sides acknowledged the bottom-line reality — the latest jobs report shows a step in the right direction. The politicos can argue whether it was a baby step, or a healthy stride forward.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Politics aside, new jobs report shows progress
America continues to gradually recover from deep recession
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The celebration season
Spring has been a bit elusive at times in 2013, which is its nature.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: MVC tourney an event worth having
It’s been a long time since the Missouri Valley Conference chose Indiana State University to host its post-season baseball tournament, but Terre Haute had never been more prepared for an event such as this.
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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EDITORIAL: Still waiting for the jobs reward
The forces in control of Indiana government for most of the past decade need to show some results to Hoosiers in one primary category.
Good-paying jobs. -
MARK BENNETT: Littered with irony: Why do people callously discard their trash, and who are they?
Though they aren’t acknowledged by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are basically two demographic groups of people … Those who would dump their old toilet on the banks of the Wabash River or a rural roadside. And those who wouldn’t.
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EDITORIAL: Doing the dirty work to clean up tossed trash
A first-of-its-kind, coast-to-coast project to remove litter from U.S. roadsides brought the Pick Up America crew through the Wabash Valley two years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Keep school security a local issue
The decision to provide armed security inside a schoolhouse should be made locally.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
Indiana’s parks need your help.
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EDITORIAL: The return of terror
Emotions today remain strong and raw in wake of Monday’s terror bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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EDITORIAL: A solution to distracted driving … stop it … now
You’ve got to stop. You know you do it. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused a tragedy already.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Women of Influence’: 2013 selectees have given much to their communities
For the second year, United Way of the Wabash Valley has teamed up with local sponsors to select and honor a group of women who have made outstanding contributions to their communities, professions and families.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: A new honor for our veterans
A commendation goes out today to state Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat who led the charge this week in the Indiana House of Representatives to pay tribute to the nation’s Purple Heart recipients.
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EDITORIAL: Shifting view on marriage
One could argue, as many have, that Sen. Joe Donnelly did the right thing last week when he dropped his support of government-sanctioned opposition to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t a radical move, considering most Democrats have now made the switch.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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EDITORIAL: A chance to change our bad cultural habits
The sight of diligent, eager young people dragging trash out of the Wabash River wetlands is both inspiring and sad.
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EDITORIAL: Maintaining high standards
Standards
It’s the raging buzzword in education circles these days. Everyone insists that higher standards must be met. Anything less is, doggone it, unacceptable. -
Noteworthy in the news
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