For a campaign with a lead in the polls, they’re still acting desperate.
Indicators measure the nation’s unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney says it misses the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay.
“That’s a source that didn’t even exist 10 years ago,” Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati on Thursday. “Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay.”
I guess it depends on the meaning of “some money.”
Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards responded that Cheney’s comments show how “out of touch” he and President Bush are with the economy.
“If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking,” Edwards said in a statement.
Cheney walked into that one.
Update: Prof. DeLong noted that Cheney’s remark, in addition to being dumb, is also completely wrong.
Cheney needs a staff who will tell him that the $2.0 billion or so in eBay’s domestic revenues are already included in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis’s estimates of GDP.
Remember, Cheney’s supposed to be the competent one at the White House.