Over the weekend, aside from the health care bill, the big topic was jobs: is the stimulus working, will it bring more jobs, and how will unemployment numbers affect the fate of the Obama administration?  The Washington Post’s Alec MacGillis writes that “the White House thinks the stimulus is working, and it doesn’t want you on its payroll,” New Deal examples of direct employment by the federal government notwithstanding.  And Peter Goodman of the New York Times reports these words from Labor Secretary Hilda Solis about unemployment:

I don’t think it’s a matter of things going wrong . . . we’re making a tremendous turning point here.

I’ve heard of cheerleading for your administration, but since there is no way to predict when the jobs picture will actually improve, wouldn’t it make more sense for the secretary of labor to say something along the lines of “there are a lot of people hurting out there and we’re doing our best to boost job creation”?  Engagement with the problem and the people looking for work would be better than this kind of boosterism, which in the end only increases doubt and suspicion. -NH

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