John Kerry and the "Misery Index"

Regardless of whether you favor your left wing or your right, you will get a chuckle out of this thread. Here are a few highlights (the chart comes from the Kerry campaign website):

Kerry Campaign Whopper! Carter years economic boom, Reagan years a bust

This has to be the most laughable thing I have ever seen forwarded during a campaing. Kerry is desperate if he expects anyone to believe this whopper.

His New Middle Class Misery Index now appearing on his campaign website shows the Clinton years were an economic boom and the Reagan years were an economic bust (help me, my sides are aching from laughing at this one!!!)



Table above according to John Kerry Campaign. Laughing will be considered unpatriotic.


Change in the Middle-class Misery Index
Carter..... 6
Reagan..... -5
Bush I..... -12
Clinton.... 23
Bush II.... -13

And amaaaaaaazingly enough, The index for GW Bush - according to Kerry - is the worst ever.

If this gets reported with any seriousness in the press, the media in this country is more of a liberal lap dog than anyone ever accussed them of. That they have given it a pass is already a sign they are playing in left field.


Have they accounted for the Carter Malaise Factor?


Unlike Kerry, I didn't have a rich wife. We were plain miserable under Carter, poor and getting poorer each week as double-digit inflation got worse and worse. Then Reagan saved us from the misery.


This is the traditional definition of the misery index:

misery index
An index combining the unemployment rate and inflation rate. The index is used to measure the political significance of the condition of the economy, as well as consumer confidence.
If you compute it the way it's been done for the last 25 or so years, Bush comes out way ahead of everybody else.

Therefore, they had to come up with a new "forumla" to compute it with!


I had a double-digit mortgage (16.5%!) during the good ol' days (Hah) of the Carter Administration.


The press has been rehabilitating Carter in the public's mind. Especially to young people who either were young or not born during that time. They characterize him as a Saint, and you know what? They're winning.


19% Mortgages and double digit INFLATION, gutted Military, the loss of IRAN to the Ayatollah must be KEY factors in determining a positive misery index. Laughable on all fronts.


Look at how his chart says the economy is getting better in 92, right when Clinton was selling "the worst economy in 50 years".


Did you see Jay Leno's monolouge on this? Jay says Kerry came up with this misery index and Kerry claims that it is the highest it has ever been! Jay says "Of course, thats because he just invented it last week!".


Change in the Middle-class Misery Index
Carter..... 6
Reagan..... -5
Bush I..... -12
Clinton.... 23
Bush II.... -13

These figures are exactly correct!

They are measuring misery here, less misery is good.

There was a lot of misery under Democrats Carter and Clinton, but under Republicans, Reagan, Bush I and GWB the misery was/is so low, it's in negative numbers.

Well done, Ron, George and GWB.


I left out some of the more unkind statements, and stopped about 1/3 of the way through the thread. If you would like to read the rest, go here. It's funny stuff!