When Politics and Statistics Collide

Most of the increase in unemployment rate happened before Obama took office in January 2009. I’m not a policy expert, so I won’t comment on why that might be. However, I do think that at least in this one case (I haven’t checked others), the statement on Mitt Romney’s flyer mischaracterizes the whole picture. 

You can go to http://data.bls.gov and explore this data for yourself.

Health care according to the candidates

From my inbox today:

“The editors [of the New England Journal of Medicine] asked the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, to describe their health care platforms and their visions for the future of American health care. Their statements follow.”

Mitt Romney’s piece felt (to me) like a lot of telling me what you’re going to do without actually telling me what you’re going to do.

My favorite line from Obama’s article: “Supporters and detractors alike refer to the law as Obamacare. I don’t mind, because I do care.”