Republicans: Heads I win, tails you lose.

Republicans want to have it both ways.   Heads, I win;  tails, you lose.  Certainly their chosen candidate believes that.  Romney thinks he can present himself as very conservative to the primary crowd, then shake the Etch-a-Sketch and be a completely different person now to attract moderates.

Our job is to show them that you can't have it both ways.  The latest example of this is the squawking they're doing over the September jobs report.  Because it's surprisingly good, they're crying "foul."   Accusing the Obama team of cooking the books and fudging the figures.

It's true that the monthly reports are based on a bunch of approximation indicators and that they often have to be revised later as more detailed data come in.   But come on, guys.  If you accept the method when the numbers look bad for Obama -- so that you can trash him with them -- you can't then say the methodology is all wrong when the numbers look good for him -- and for the country, I might add.

As to the accusation of cooking the books.   You say it's suspicious that, one month before the election, the unemployment drops below 8% for the first time in almost four years.

Well, perhaps it really did.  It might just be good evidence that Obama's policies are beginning to pay off, right?

If you think they waited until this late date to cook the books, you're not very savvy politically.  Why would they endure two years of harsh cricitism, allowing you to poison the minds of half the population against him, and wait until now to fudge the numbers?  Wouldn't it make more sense to show a steady climb all along?

So just shut up, already.   The 7.8% is the best number the professional statisticians can come up with at this time.  It may be revised later.   It might be even lower.   After all, the number of new jobs reported for July and August have now been revised upward as more data has come in.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Ralph