White House says Economy is sound despite 'Mess'

At a campaign rally in Jacksonville, Florida - on September 15 - Sen. John McCain issued the following statement:

"There's been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street and ... people are frightened by these events. Our economy, I think, still the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult times. And I promise you, we will never put America in this position again..."

On that same day, at a campaign stop in Junction City Colorado, Barack Obama hammered Sen. McCain for saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong:

"We just woke up to news of financial disaster and this morning he [McCain] said that the fundamentals of the economy are still strong! Sen. McCain, what economy are you talking about?!”

Soon after, the Obama campaign released the following campaign ad:



But apparently, Barack Obama not only approves of that message, he also approves of his own hypocrisy, as evidenced by the fact that he and his minions are now in complete agreement with Sen. McCain:

From the AP - "White House says economy is sound despite 'mess'" - h/t - Legal Insurrection:

The economy is fundamentally sound despite the temporary "mess" it's in, the White House said Sunday in the kind of upbeat assessment that Barack Obama had mocked as a presidential candidate...

During the fall campaign, Obama relentlessly criticized his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, for declaring, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Obama's team painted the veteran senator as out of touch and failing to grasp the challenges facing the country.

But on Sunday, that optimistic message came from economic adviser Christina Romer.

When asked during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" if the fundamentals of the economy were sound, she replied: "Of course they are sound."

"The fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology," she said. "We know that — that temporarily we're in a mess, right? We've seen huge job loss, we've seen very large falls in GDP. So certainly in the short run we're in a — in a bad situation."

Just a week ago, White House Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag declared that "fundamentally, the economy is weak." Days later, Obama told reporters he was confident in the economy.

"If we are keeping focused on all the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy, all the outstanding companies, workers, all the innovation and dynamism in this economy, then we're going to get through this," Obama said, striking a tone that his top aides mimicked.

"There's a reason why even in the midst of this economic crisis you've seen actual increases in investment flows here into the United States," Obama said Saturday in the Oval Office. "I think it's a recognition that the stability not only of our economic system, but also our political system, is extraordinary."

To paraphrase Barack Obama's campaign ad: "How can John McCain Barack Obama fix our economy, if he doesn't understand its broken?"