Want Bush admin to look good? Compare it to itself

By Lee Russ

Saturday, December 09, 2006 at 04:33 PM

Ever notice how often some set of statistics put out by the White House touts things being better "than at any time since 2000," or something similar?  It's because it's tough even for propagandists to spin something in this admin being positive if they have to compare themselves to other administrations.

BUT...if you compare yourself to yourself, well, something must have gotten better somewhere, especially if you managed to produce real disasters when you first took over.

SO....here's the White House touting Christmas spending (really taking on the tough ones, eh Mr. President?):

USA Today/Gallup Poll Estimated Consumers Plan To Spend More Than $800 On Gifts This Season.  The estimate is the "highest early November reading Gallup has seen since 2000," suggesting a "strong holiday season" for retailers.  (Lydia Saad, "Christmas Shoppers Appear To Be In A Jolly Mood," 11-20-06, Available At: http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=25495&pg=1)

Again, note the "since 2000," comparing Bush II to Bush II.

It's like the old Shell gasoline commercial, trumpeting that Shell with Platformate gets better mileage than Shell without Platformate.  Great news--your product with all its ingredients is better than your product missing some ingredients.

I always felt that Bush was resurrecting some kind of Shell game.