We Need Confidence, but We Get 'Dr. Doom'

Peggy Noonan thinks Obama is missing the jobs crisis, again
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 8, 2013 12:02 PM CST
We Need Confidence, but We Get 'Dr. Doom'
President Obama pauses as he speaks to reporters in the White House on March 1.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

President Obama didn't recognize the scope of the jobs crisis in his first term, and he's making the same mistake in his second, writes Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. Instead of public-works projects, we got health care reform, and its costs are only making employers even more reluctant to hire. We needed jobs then, and we need jobs now, but the president—or "Dr. Doom," as Noonan calls him—is too busy fighting over spending and taxes and warning of sequester Armageddon.

Once people start working—and Noonan thinks the current unemployment rate doesn't reflect how dire the situation really is—a cascade of good things start happening to the economy and the deficit. "There's little sense he sees this," writes Noonan. "Dr. Doom talks about coming disaster when businessmen need the confidence to hire someone. He's missing the boat on the central crisis of his second term." Click for the full column. (More President Obama stories.)

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