Jobs haven’t been Job One for Obama

Obama School SpeechRelated to the White House job summit Thursday, columnist Robert Samuelson wrote: “Obama can’t be fairly blamed for most job losses, which stemmed from a crisis predating his election. But he has made a bad situation somewhat worse. His unwillingness to advance trade agreements (notably, with Colombia and South Korea) has hurt exports. The hostility to oil and gas drilling penalizes one source of domestic investment spending. More important, the decision to press controversial proposals (health care, climate change) was bound to increase uncertainty and undermine confidence. . . . Choices were made — and jobs weren’t always Job One.”