problems that affect the nation. you might or might not love what he is doing, but at least he is trying to do something. what are the republicans doing? the worst financial crisis since the great depression. they think it s as insignificant as an ant. it fits into the narrative they are trying to tell the american people. in 23 minutes, we will get new employment numbers. the june numbers will be out. if that s a bad number that a lot of people are expecting, can a strategy like no matter how strong republicans are overcome the fact that 10% of americans don t have jobs and perhaps if you look at the real unemployment, it s closer to 20%. nothing overcomes that and if the numbers are as bad as people think it s going to be, it s hard to figure out how it can be a good number then. republicans get to advance their narrative and one strain of that
to once this news comes out. a widespread expectation the jobs numbers will be pretty weak. they were propped up in the most recent report by a lot of people working for the census and some of those have been let go and hasn t been a big surge. housing market continues to be weak. we saw recently existing home sales down 30% in may. general belief that these numbers are not going to be great. a real scramble to frame what this means. the administration at the top level does not think that we re headed for a double dip recession. they think that we are on the upswing. definitely economists think a double dip is for real. what the administration is worried about is this perception somehow barack obama is anti-business and know a lot of people in the business community feel this, that they feel he has burned their bridges with him and trying to rehard to rebuild the bridges. they had a bunch of business executives into the white house yesterday. the ceos of walt disney, ford, a
all this, this is the bottom line. look. we focused a lot of our attention on the gulf oil spill but the number one issue for most people is jobs. people care what is in their paychecks and the value of their home and whether they still have a job. people are hurting out there and number one issue and why the vice president is doing most of it it still trying to talk about economic recovery and get out there and do that stuff. recovery summer, guys. that s right. thank you. let s do this. we can do it! the other big, as john said, the other big topic, the war. that s right. despite increasing pessimism about the war in afghanistan, the house has passed an $80 billion spending bill. the finance president obama troop increase there. it now has to be reconciled the slimmer version passed by the senate and comes as the newly appointed commander for afghanistan general david petraeus arrives in kabul later today. the political playbook is coming up next. inside details on ho
i think the military has been told that it does have until next year to see if it can make the strategy work. i mean, you know, only six months before the policy review, the troops will actually be there. if you were to make that review today, you would say that the concept that we were trying to prove in this strategy, that you can clear areas with u.s. troops and then put afghan military, police, and governance in behind quickly and stabilize the area, that that concept is not working. i m sorry to say that, but that s the honest truth. can that concept be shown to work between now and december? probably not. i just don t think there s enough time. can it be shown to work between now and july 2011? a lot of people would say, again, just too tough a row. as i talk to people who are involved in making policy, they are thinking of alternative ways
fell in june from 19.1 in may a new low for the year in may. unemployment includes the unemployment and those working part-time but wanting full-time work. john, as you said earlier we are looking at trend lines when we set our expectations for these numbers that we will see in less than 90 minutes now. as david was saying, a few months ago, everybody kind of thought that we were coming out of this slowly but the trend lined are in the right direction. now there s a question about whether they are headed in the wrong direction. i want to ask you, david. sure. we talked about, you know, the question of confidence and business confidence, right? there s no question but that a lot of executives, not only wall street ceos but ceos across the country, are not particularly impressed by president obama s leadership. that confidence throughout the country emanates to some extent from the business sector. when you talk to people in the world of business, why is it that they are so negativ