"job losses were higher than expected"

Ummm...by whom? What I mean is, did everyone have the same expectation as to what those job losses would be? ;-) Who sets the mark? Whose opinion is definitive? Whose expectation rules?

I'm always a bit suspicious of these general sort of statements in the media, as they are usually concocted to push a certain point of view.

Chongo tells me, for instance, that he was expecting a much higher loss of jobs in December...but no one quotes Chongo, do they??? (except me, that is)

See my point? ;-) I'm not defending Obama...I'm just saying that most of the stuff we hear from the media is already pre-cooked to push some point of view, and it's not objective....it's biased.