Axelrod: Summer Of Recovery? I Never Said That. You Should Show Me The Tape Of Me Saying That. BOOM! Here Ya Go.

David Axelrod, senior adviser to Jug Ears’ campaign, appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace this morning.  Can you say landmine?  I knew you could.

Well, here’s what happened to the poor fellow.  According to the rush transcript from the broadcast, Wallace put into context the current state of the economy; which is dismal, and asked, “Given that fixing the economy was number job one—why does President Obama deserve reelection given that record?”

Predictably, Axelrod provided some tortured circular logic that “the hole that was created is huge and we’re going to fill it.”

He continued, “The president has been urging Congress since last fall to pass his bill that would invigorate those sectors (construction and education), and that would help. But we have a lot of work to do.”

[SNIP]

“And the real question for voters is going to be, what is the choice on the other side? This week, we learned that Governor Mitt Romney's tax plans would raise taxes for the wealthy—would cut taxes for the wealthy, a windfall for the wealthy and raise taxes by $2,000 on the middle class. That's not a prescription for getting our economy moving or rebuilding the middle class.”

Then the trap was slyly set by Wallace and Axelrod took the bait.

WALLACE: But, David, didn't this White House badly misjudge this recovery? I remember in 2010, two summers ago, you and Vice President Biden were running around, talking about recovery summer. That was the summer of 2010.

And the fact is that your White House said that if you got the stimulus, that $800 billion, that unemployment would stay under 8 percent. In fact with the stimulus, unemployment has stayed over 8 percent for the last 42 months, that's 3 1/2 years.

AXELROD: Chris, first of all, I wasn't running around saying anything that other than we were going to be persistent, that it took years to get into this mess, it was going to take years to get -

WALLACE: You talked about recovery summer in 2010.

AXELROD: Well, you should show me the tape of me saying that. I have been very consistent about the fact we need to be persistent in our effort.

For your dining and dancing pleasure I present little David Axelrod getting caught with his pants down in a bold-faced lie.  The first video is Axelrod touting the Summer of Recovery and the second is his appearance this morning on FNS.  (Wouldn’t want to be accused of taking anything out of context.)

See also:

In June 2010, David Axelrod Previewed The “Recovery Summer” By Saying “This Summer Will Be The Most Active Recovery Act Season Yet.” 

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s August 2010 Op-Ed: “Welcome To The Recovery” 

Obama Wins The Gold For Worst Economic Recovery Ever

Louis Woodhill, writing for Forbes, contends that if mismanaging an economic recovery were an Olympic event, Old Jug Ears would be standing on the middle platform right now, accepting the gold medal.

Woodhill did not refer to the current occupant of the Oval Office as Old Jug Ears, of course, that’s my pejorative.  Nevertheless, Woodhill continues, “Deep recessions are supposed to be followed by strong recoveries, but under Obama, the worst recession since the 1930s has been followed by the slowest economic recovery in the history of the republic.  In a very real sense, there has been no recovery at all—things are still getting worse.”

Woodhill educates us in his piece by making comparisons in total employment growth, unemployment rate reduction, per capita GDP growth, change in the Real Dow and change in real produced assets with Bush 43, the Bush 41 - Clinton team and Ronald Reagan.

"During the first full year of Obama’s economic recovery (2010), real produced assets actually fell by 1.41%.  This is the biggest drop during the 60 years for which data is available.  It is also the only decline ever observed during an economic recovery."

"We should all be proud that Barack Obama has won the Olympic gold medal in the “Worst First Three Years of Economic Recovery” event, and reward him accordingly in November."

From your lips to God’s ears, Mr. Woodhill.