Friday May 7, 2004 3:01 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, touring by bus two Midwestern states he narrowly lost during the 2000 election, is carrying a message of job gains amid an economic upswing he contends has been sparked by lower taxes.
The president is leaving Washington on Friday after two difficult days dealing with the international fallout from the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers.
Bush issued a personal apology for the soldiers' conduct. ~snip~
Turning to another agenda item, Bush planned to argue that the jobs picture is showing signs of improvement. The national unemployment rate dipped from 5.7 to 5.6 percent in April as employers added 288,000 jobs to their payrolls, the Labor Department reported Friday. It was the eighth straight month that payrolls have risen.
Although Bush likely will be the first president since the Great Depression to have lost jobs under his watch, hiring this year has helped shrink those losses to about 1.5 million. Kerry's campaign blames Bush for the long slide into joblessness. The manufacturing sector ended 42 straight months of job losses in February, posting 27,000 new jobs for the year.
~snip~
more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4064026,00.htmlCould he just stay in the White House and pretend to do his job, instead of prancing aroung the country. Just for a week....:eyes: And he did not apologize for the conduct, just for the humiliation(ie his for getting caught).