White House Jobs Summit: Real Progress or PR Stunt?

[Steerpike]

Source: ABC News

President Obama said today that he is not interested in "taking a wait-and-see approach" when it comes to job creation, as his administration faces unemployment numbers at their worst levels since 1983.

"What I'm interested in is taking action right now to help businesses create jobs right now, in the near term," the president said at the opening session of the White House jobs summit.

The summit, announced a week after the Bureau of Labor Statistics said unemployment reached 10.2 percent, is the administration's latest effort to do just that.

However, some critics dismiss it as little more than a publicity stunt.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-jobs-summit-real-progress-pr-stunt/story?id=9232219

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Lot's of biz leaders and magnates...

[FrenchieCat]

1. He should have met with people that he has at his town hall all of the time,

and handed out jobs like he was Santa,
instead of talking to the people who actually have the power to hire folks,
because that would have been more easily understood
by even the simplest minds.
Than he could have walked on water
as the entertainment.

[Steerpike]

3. Well

He "appeared" to be meeting with the exact same "Giants of the Economy" who have been downsizing employees in the first place. One Disney exec suggested President Obama cut taxes to the wealthy...er I mean...corporations...

[FrenchieCat]

4. He met with a lot of folks, and yeah, folks had a lot of things to say.....

but Obama didn't say these things.

I'm glad he can listen even to those with fucking ridiculous ideas such as the ones you suggest.
Means America is open for debate again....and perhaps, George Bush didn't win our hearts and minds
afterall (like "the terrorists won" soundbyte).

There was a window guy there advocating what he wanted to see happen as well,
and Krugman, and Reich and others were there as well.
They all had things to say.

I'm glad they got to express themselves.
Maybe something good will come out of it.

What I can't understand is how does shitting on the President all of the time
help most folks who do it? I can understand the pent up anger,
but at some point, to be so negative about everything would be
so exhausting. I did it for 8 years, and I can't do it anymore....

[Steerpike]

5. You have a point.

It's just that my IQ and my experience force me to view these things under the veil of reality.

[FrenchieCat]

6. Bush 's Veil; that's what that is.

We've been abused for so very long,
it could only be that,
cause it really is so extreme and unearned,
this dismal distrust just because we can, IMO.

But hey....that's fine with me,
but I choose to see it differently,
because although Bush may have kicked my ass for 8 long ass years,
he ain't about to continue having a hold on me.

I just happen to trust Obama a lot more,
and although he ain't perfect, he ain't as bad
as folks now want to believe.

Kind of like this war talk.
He was honest with us, and told us for 3 years exactly what he'd do,
and now, folks have their mouths hanging open, as though he came up
with something brand new, when he just didn't....although
I was not expecting to be given an exit strategy for a neverending war...
so I'm glad that got put on the table, no matter if some want to
doubt that too.

Bush and before him Clinton got us where we are,
with all of the deregulations that they put out there
day in day out, and somehow, Obama is the one getting his ass kicked for it,
to a point that he can't even have a job summit, without it being labeled something nefarious.
I'm just getting tired of the negativity. Folks want an awful goddamn lot,
as though living through Bush was hell enough, so now, just like that,
we are supposed to have this fairy godpresident that comes and sprinkles jobs
all around us, and we can just grab them and go! (that's really not being a realist there!)
but yet they walk around totally depressed, distrustful and quite spiteful,
no matter what Obama does.
I can't do much about any of that, other than speak my piece, though...
so that's what I'll do.

[Steerpike]

7. Frenchie

I am sorry we have to be at odds on this. You are a nice person and so obviously a liberal with heart. but...

I don't "want to believe" anything. I'm a populist and a socialist. And all evidence reveals Obama to be a supply side corporatist. Who also happens to be a war monger.

In what universe am I not supposed to be disappointed?

[FrenchieCat]

9. If putting those labels on him helps order your world, so be it.

I'm sure you are nice as well, and like me are here to speak what you consider to be your truth,
so I can't hold that against you.

Still, I find it sad that with Bush, we were just praying that he wasn't gonna fuck up too much,
and yet he did,

but of course, Obama has got to part the waters, cause we were so nice to elect him and give him his big shot.....so for you, that means him being a socialist and populist in the way that you need it to please you, although he never gave an inkling that he was gonna be more than a fair minded individual who would attempt to make things better, not heaven.

But hey, I think I've said all that I can without simply repeating myself.

Have a good day, and I hope for your sake that at some point you see some good there,
and then perhaps that Bush veil will lift, even if it's just a tiny teeny bit.
I think that is all I can wish for anyone that cynical watching each and every little movement,
all with the magnifying glasses, and a very jaded weary eye. I kind of feel for you; as you will never ever be close to satisfied in this realm, with that approach. But have your dark reality, cause we are only here for so long, and you should in a way that makes you most comfortable, if you can't have it as you would wish.

[Steerpike]

12. Thanks for your input Frenchie.

And for all our sakes I hope you are right.

[sandnsea]

18. We're supposed to be hosting our own forums

between now and Dec 13, and then they will take input from those meetings and most likely host another forum at the White House.

http://obama-mamas.com/blog/?p=754

[Steerpike]

19. Cool with me!

I have a job...

Too bad for those wandering around in the cold, with no money and very little hope.

[sandnsea]

20. So you're hosting a forum?

To see what you can do in your own town?

[Steerpike]

21. No I'm really stretched to the limit timewise!

Hey I thought I had a democratic system to work for me. You know...I vote for people who show leadership. Anyway like I said...I have a job. I put in about 50 hours a week. Plus I have a disabled daughter who I take care of.

I didn't realize how little the President was actually required to do. If it's really all up to me then a lot of unemployed people really are up the creek!

[sandnsea]

23. Well hey, there's always time for bitching!

And thank god there is a democratic system where the leadership is working 80 hours a week because you're right about one thing, if it were up to you the unemployed people really would be up a creek because unlike you, I do realize how little most people are willing to do, unlike the President.

[Steerpike]

24. oh yeah

and the golden age of Obama lays out before us. the pennies have fallen from my eyes...I'm not worthy to recieve his grace. May the lamb of Obama have mercy on my worthless soul.

[Demeter]

2. PR. The "Chess Game" Is a Shell Game

[pundaint]

8. Love it! but a three-dimensional shell game

[ixion]

10. if he's not interested in a 'wait and see' tactic, why has he been doing that for a year?

hmmmmm?

[FrenchieCat]

11. Is that what the Stimulus and the Big budget are to you.....wait and see?

That guy must be a lazy son of a B____!

[ixion]

17. The "stimulus" was a daylight robbery

the beneficiaries of which were primarily Wall St. and foreign investors. It did very little to actually stimulate anything remotely related to the economy.

[vi5]

13. Another "bipartisan" pr stunt.....

I'm sorry. We had 8 years of someone in the White House listening to Big Business and the wealthy and corporate heads.

They proved themselves incapable of doing anything other than increasing money for the wealthy, most egregiously by cutting jobs left and right.

They don't need to be listened to any more. And as a matter of fact we should be doing the opposite of what they want.

So this continued bullshit of "giving everyone a seat at the table", and having those same crooks now being listened to and given a voice in how to solve this debacle that they created is a farce. Almost as big a farce as putting Larry Summers and Tim Geithner in charge of anything even close to the economy.

[Steerpike]

14. woah!

Denied from LBN! Curses foiled again!

[natrat]

15. part of the grand plan is to crush labor, so it's a stunt and 10+ % unemployment is the new norm

[BobRossi]

16. If he was serious....

There would not be one H1-B visa in existence.

[mopinko]

22. i think it is called the bully pulpit, which, iirc

lots of people here have decried his failure to adequately use. in this instance, i would say it is an issue to which it can be effectively applied. deciding to invest in business opportunities is as much psychological as anything. so, a little showmanship could actually help.

but that is still a hell of a headline for a "major" new organization. i mean, :wtf:

[laughingliberal]

25. His remarks did not leave a lot of room for encouragement

Saying we have limited resources pretty much sounds to me as if we have nothing left for the working class after giving the money to the banksters and war piggies.

Then he said jobs have to come from the private sector. Sounds like the Republican line, "Government never created one job," which justifies them transferring all the resources up to big bidness.

I don't like opposing a president of my own party but I'm not seeing much to convince me we have dumped the old trickle down scam.

[spanone]

26. some critics???? bullshit....the right would criticize if he handed out a million jobs