Job Quality and the Presidency

When the Washington Post speaks......? Imagine my surprise when I read in the post an article titled "'Job Quality' -- Campaign Myth". Could this column be addressing the constant filth that has been spewing forth from the Kerry camp about the quality of jobs that are being created? Could it be affirming that John Kerry could change things?

It turns out that this column does dispute the trash from the Kerry campaign and it clearly states that Kerry will not be able to alter the course of "job quality" as president.

Robert J. Samuelson writes:

There may be lots of reasons to vote for John Kerry over George Bush, but "job quality" isn't one of them. Kerry has been telling crowds that the country is "shipping jobs overseas and replacing them with jobs that pay you less than the jobs you have today." Ergo, job quality is going to the dogs. A few weeks ago I wrote that presidents have little power to influence job creation. The trouble for Kerry is that they have even less power to alter job "quality" -- the nature of new jobs, how much they pay and how much security they provide. Presidents can't do much more than you or I can.

further down in the article he states:

Kerry's broader message -- the one intended to impress voters -- is wrong.

He implicitly suggests that the U.S. economy under Bush can't create high-paying (aka "good'') jobs. We heard a similar refrain in the 1980s when the United States was supposedly becoming "a nation of hamburger flippers." The story was wrong then, too.

He concludes with the following:

It's easy to make speeches about jobs; but it's not easy to affect jobs. John Kerry and George Bush have genuine differences over taxes, health care, energy policy and judicial appointments. There are legitimate questions about their foreign policies, leadership styles and characters. Voters should decide based on real issues, not rhetorical flourishes.

Well I guess the old adage is true you can find some good in everyone, even a corporation called the Washington Post.