Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
I know nobody cares, but you really have to admire the chutzpah of a Karl Rove Super-PAC running an ad that attacks President Obama because median incomes are down since 2009. The problem isn’t that the statement is literally untrue. According to the Census Bureau, the median income adjusted for inflation did indeed drop $368 between 2009 and 2010.
But guess what? Between 2001 and 2009, when Rove’s boss was in the White House, median income fell $448. And that’s over two entire terms that included six full years of economic expansion. But I guess when you bequeath your successor the biggest economic calamity since the Depression, you need to work pretty hard to rejuvenate your reputation.
