Georgia #1 . . . in highest unemployment

Georgia has replaced Mississippi as the state with the highest unemployment rate:   8.1%.   So much for our civil rights era mantra "thank God for Mississippi," meaning that at least Georgia wasn't the worst.

The slight silver lining to this dismal statistic is that it can be another arrow in Jason Carter's campaign ammunition against Gov. Nathan Deal.    Let me recount some of the others:

1..  Ethical and shady financial deals -- insufficiently hidden by his staff's heavy-handed interference with two successive directors of the ethics commission.   Clearly abuse of power.

2.  Refusal to expand Medicaid coverage through the ACA, which would have provided medical coverage for another 600,000 Georgians;  and then pushing through a law that makes it impossible for him to reverse that decision without the legislature approving.

3.  Consequences for this refusal to expand Medicaid include:   rural hospitals forced to close or downsize to emergency services only;   loss of thousands of health care jobs;   Georgian's tax dollars going to help pay for such expansions in other states, while we get nothing.

4.  Slashing state funding for education, then partially restoring it in the current budget and crowing about how he has increased spending on schools. 

5.  Slashing state funding for public sector jobs and services, while offering sweetheart tax breaks to corporations to locate here.     Leading a trade mission to Israel at taxpayer expense, publicizing his appearance with top Israeli officials -- clearly to remind voters that Carter's grandfather is not popular in Israel because of his honest about the Palestinians' plight.

6.  Deal is a practitioner of the worst in crony, backroom politics.   He's good at the first rule of that method:   make sure your fingerprints never appear on the crime evidence.   Otherwise, he might well be facing multiple lawsuits.

And what was the worst that Deal had to throw at Carter in their recent public forum confrontation?   1.  Carter voted for Deal's budgets that cut education funds -- up until the last one, after he had decided to run for governor.   2.  His idea about a separate budget dedicated to education won't work, according to Deal;  but he doesn't say why not.   3.   Generally trying to portray Carter as lacking the experience to be governor, trading on his grandfather's political connections.

It's going to be close -- but an incumbent whose support has declined from a 9% lead to a 5% lead should be very worried this close to the election.

Ralph