What were your fellow conservatives screaming about during this time, do you remember? They were screaming about debt and interst rates, they wanted harsh austerity and rate hikes, and they were predicting that the bond vigilantes were going to punish the US govt. and hyperinflation was just around the corner. We can see what would have happened had Obama listened to the opposition by looking across the pond, see http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/the-greater-depression/

If President Obama had made this argument, you would be right in judging it a lie. But he didn’t say that. He said something else. What he said was true.

What explains the tendency of self-described fact-checkers to side with the powers-that-be against valid if sometimes exaggerated criticism? It seems that the only kind of criticism they find acceptable is the measured tone of a technical journal. Political debate should be sterile and conservative. Any sharp, pointed, polemical response will displease them. But polemics, political rhetoric and hyperbole are an essential part of political debate. A political critique doesn’t have to be based on the most benign interpretation of what is being criticized, and it doesn’t have to weigh all the arguments equally. Just look at the Declaration of Independence – how unfair and polemical were those attacks on King George! No doubt Poilitifact would rate them “misleading”, if not pants on fire.

On the following site there is a table that shows the number of people employed in our nation, in the thousands, over time. It’s data provided by the Department of Labor. There is no spin on the data- they’re just numbers:
http://www.adpemploymentreport.com/data/History_December_2011.xlsx

When Bush took office, there were 111358K employed in nonfarm private jobs; when he left office there were 111043- that’s a loss overall of over 300000 jobs, which he deserves blame for. (But keep in mind that this is the bulk of the jobs collapse in 2008 too-onths before that the number was at 114752K, meaning that during the first 7 years of Bush he created 3 million jobs, but he did earn the job losses so let’s just go with the final numbers).

When Obama took office, there were 111043K people employed in nonfarm private jobs; today there are 109646K. This means that during President Obama’s administration, 1,397,000 jobs have been lost.

I find the argument that he has created 3 million jobs during his time as Presient to be misleading at best, an outright lie at worst. Under his leadership, not only did he not recover from the 3 million in job losses under Bush in 2008, he actually made the situation worse and through his policies put another 1 million out of work.

Politifact is simply theater to muddy just how simple a fact check is and make it look like some special service. Anyone who quotes them is suspect even though they do some good work most of the time. Their Lie of the Year list killed any credibility they ever earned for the sake of fake balance.