Reply #15: It's a carry-over from Cheney and Rove back in 04 when job numbers were bad and it look like we were

[54anickel]

tanking.

http://garthvh.com/post/2007/06/10/Karl-Rove-and-Dick-Cheney-on-eBay.aspx

On September 9th, 2004 Dick Cheney made a statement about the number of individuals who derived some of their income from ebay:

That's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago," he said. "Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay." It's unclear how many of those are making enough to support themselves.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-09-09-cheney-war_x.htm

Now, Karl Rove, the master of data for the republicans, has almost doubled the numbers used by Cheney:

There are two or three societal trends that are driving us in an increasingly deep center-right posture,” he said. “One of them is the power of the computer chip. Do you know how many people’s principal source of income is eBay? Seven hundred thousand.” He went on, “So the power of the computer has made it possible for people to gain greater control over their lives. It’s given people a greater chance to run their own business, become a sole proprietor or an entrepreneur. As a result, it has made us more market-oriented, and that equals making you more center-right in your politics.
So according to the republican leadership in less than two years the number of people whose job it is to sell on ebay has almost doubled, and has gone from “unclear how many of those are making enough to support themselves.” to “ people’s principal source of income is eBay”....