Quote of the Day

WSJ's Political Diary, 4/12/11

"As Barack Obama was delivering his speech on the nation's long-term debt crisis, word came that JP Morgan has radically downgraded its projection of the nation's short-term prospects for economic growth. Morgan now thinks the economy will grow at an annual rate of 1.4 percent this year. This comes hard on the heels of Macroeconomic Advisers lowering its growth projection for 2011 from 4 percent at the beginning of the year to 1.7 percent today. These aren't just horrible numbers for the U.S. economy. They are a potential death knell for Barack Obama's presidency. There is no way tepid growth of this sort is going to make a dent in the nation's overall employment numbers -- and it stands to reason that if unemployment is higher at the time of the 2012 election than it was when he took office in 2009 (7.6 percent), he is exceedingly unlikely to win a second term" -- commentator John Podhoretz blogging on commentarymagazine.com