Kasich: Taking Credit Where None Is Due

Jawhnny Kaysuck, Ohio's Wonder Guv and presidential wanna-be, has a Super PAC called New Day For America.  It's been running a new TV ad bragging that Kasich "created" 400,000 jobs in Ohio.  The truthy part is that total jobs in Ohio have increased by 383,000 during Kasich's tenure.  The dubious part is the claim that Kasich had something to do with it.

Ohio's private sector jobs growth rate under Kasich has been 9.3%, which lags behind the national jobs growth rate of 11.7% over the same time period.  In total jobs (public and private), Ohio is up 7.6%, and nationally it's up 9.5%.

The Great Recession kicked the entire country's ass.  Slowly, through a combination government stimulus spending and Federal Reserve interest rate manipulation, the economy improved and employment rebounded nationally, not just in Ohio.

Post-recession employment growth in Ohio is below the national average, as cited above.  The surrounding states of Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky have out-performed Ohio's job recovery.  John Kasich's boast of job creation is simply a function of being there.  He took office at the start of a national bounce-back.  He's merely the beneficiary of good timing.

One could convincingly make the case that the second term of Ted Strickland or the first term of Ed Fitzgerald would have produced the same results, likely even better.  Hell, we could have rolled out James A. Rhodes for a fifth term and achieved the same thing, and that old bastard's been dead for 15 years!