Snow job

Well, here's the first talking point in the debate, from which all else stems: Bush Treasury Secretary John Snow's unfortunate comments about the economy:

Claims like the one that Bush will be the first president to end a term with fewer jobs than when he started are nothing more than "myths," Snow claimed. Another particularly nasty myth, he said, is the idea that the Bush administration "squandered" a $5.4 trillion budget surplus. The truth is, it never existed, Snow said. That number was only a projection that quickly dried up after the economy absorbed a series of "body blows" that included the stock market meltdown of the late 1990s, a recession, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and corporate scandals like the Enron failure. "That's what happened to the so-called surplus, it was a mirage," Snow said. "It never existed."

To be fair, Snow is technically right on both counts. Bush is not the first president to end his term with fewer jobs: Hoover was. And the surplus was not technically real, but projected. The problem is that while technically true, they are misleading statements bordering on falsehoods. Not only are they misleading, they make it appear as though the administration is completely out of touch. And Bush is having a tough enough time regaining credibility without his own Treasury Secretary saying these sorts of things. Bush's defense of his economic record -- that he inherited the problems and his policies have saved things from getting worse -- is credible, if weak. But sweeping the problems under the carpet by ignoring the facts is a losing strategy. How much luckier can Seabisc...I mean, Kerry, get? This statement emerging on the day of the debate? This is a gift.