Some telling statistics

[Trekbike]

If some of you read American Handgunner magazine you likely see a regular section called, “Add It Upâ€. It has different numbers and statistics that are interesting. (BTW you can read the digital copy online for free.)

The Jan/Feb 2011 issue had these numbers for the percentage of presidential staff who worked in the private business sector before being appointed to cabinet posts.

Eisenhower - 57%

Reagan - 56%

Clinton - 39%

G W Bush - 55%

Obama - 8%

In other words 92% of Obama’s cabinet positions are filled with people who never worked in private sector business, only in government, academia, or non-profit jobs.

[Raoul]

I'd love to know what Jack Kennedy's numbers were. Certainly it explains O's administration's ineptness at working the politcal side of congress. Guess they thought they were above it all and had some sort of manifest destiny.

[Guest mosinon]

I'm pretty sure this is untrue. I suspect they got the numbers from here. That link claims that only one of Obamas appointees had a job in the private sector. But Hillary and Napalitono both had jobs in private law firms. Tom Douche, er Dashcle (or whatever) worked in a lobbying firm, Susan Rice worked at consulting firm, Arne Duncan played professional basketball (in Australia) and so forth

I could go on but I think the point is made, crappy journalism is crappy journalism.

[mikegideon]

I'm pretty sure this is untrue. I suspect they got the numbers from here. That link claims that only one of Obamas appointees had a job in the private sector. But Hillary and Napalitono both had jobs in private law firms. Tom Douche, er Dashcle (or whatever) worked in a lobbying firm, Susan Rice worked at consulting firm, Arne Duncan played professional basketball (in Australia) and so forth

I could go on but I think the point is made, crappy journalism is crappy journalism.

Yep. Nothing new here.

EDIT: I don't know if you can even call this crappy journalism. They're just lying their asses off, because they know a percentage of the folks out there will swallow it.

Edited November 29, 2010 by mikegideon

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I wouldn't call a blogger a journalist anyway, if that's where the figures came from. I would

have been happier with a statement comparing qualifications between each President's

cabinets. But that wouldn't matter, either, because Obama doesn't really use his.

He uses czars.

A marxist here, a marxist there. It really doesn't matter, does it?

[Guest mosinon]

I wouldn't call a blogger a journalist anyway, if that's where the figures came from. I would

have been happier with a statement comparing qualifications between each President's

cabinets.

I'd agree about the blogger thing. Bloggers can do good journalism but that is an exception and not a rule so expecting journalism from bloggers is too much.

American Handgunner Magazine, on the other hand, is an actual magazine and should be held to a higher standard. Clearly the didn't fact check and I wonder if they even provided attribution to the original author (I didn't see it). Those are some serious ethical issues for a magazine. Call the New Yorker a liberal rag or whatever but if you've ever tried to write for them you know those guys fact check like there is no tomorrow.

As for the czar thing, it seems to be getting more popular. I guess it is shorthand for saying "this guy is responsible for this" but you'd think they could come up with a better title than czar. Maybe specialist or something.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Yeh, didn't the Czar thing start with Nixon? It seems to be a way to circumvent Senate confirmation.

It's just tyranny to me. The Czars aren't really accountable. I wonder if Obama has a Czar for suturing?

He does for everything else.

I agree with you about the magazine and held to a higher standard. there are a bunch of media outlets

that should be held higher. Too many of them get a pass with their slam dunk rhetoric. It's like

"talking points", which should be a good thing, is dominated by political rhetoric, in stead of honesty.

Too bad news can't be just news. Just the facts, man!