I've seen it time and time again over the past several years. Otherwise sensible people hate this President so much that they become idiots. Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, on TV today bewildered that the unemployment rate could drop "6 percentage points" over the past several months. Implies a conspiracy afoot. Does he really think that the difference between 8.4% and 7.8% is "6 percentage points"? Can he not do basic math?

I continue to be amazed that this rather unremarkable President generates so much vitriolic hatred.

well, tech. it is. if u rnd up, it 7.9

i get wat ur sayin though. its a way of getting people look at the bigger number. had he said employment is down to 7.9 from 8.4, it wouldnt garner much attention. haters will be haters.

i take it ur a demo?

Hating anything makes you dumb with regard to that thing.

Derek Jeter's hustle play to get the out at home was the best play in baseball history.

See?

I don't know what he actually said but if he did say that 8.4% was six percentage points higher than 7.8%, he's not only wrong but pathetically wrong. My ten year old grandson knows that the difference between the two is six tenths of a single percentage point. Not six percentage points. In reality, the difference is a slight bit more than half a percentage point. That's simple elementary school arithmetic.

If Obama played for the Yankees hating him would make perfect sense.

Yes, this was my original point - a former CEO of one of the world's most profitable businesses who loses his comprehension of simple mathematical concepts.

I know perfectly reasonable people who are voting for Romney because they believe his policies will work, but there are way too many people whose entire political orientation is hatred of this President and it causes them to say stupid things.

I assume most of you know which dog is mine in this fight, but I'm not going to get too worked up about a guy dropping a decimal point during a public appearance.

But it was his entire point and he had internalized it to the extent that he built his argument around the mistake.

Not the first time, nor will it be the last.

Anyway, there's a reason I avoid cable news like the plague.

its politics, therefore math has no logic or exactitude.

so when a politician says 7.8% is 6% less than 8.4%, the people believe him, even if it doesnt make any sense. Keep in mind, anyone who believes him is most likely an idiot anyways. JMO

Unfortunately. there are probably more people who would fall into that category than not. However, just because they don't necessarily think things through, you can't just randomly pigeon hole them as being idiots.

In my experience, most people don't pay attention to what's going on around them for a variety of reasons. There are those who are just plain lazy. "Dancing With The Stars" and "American Idol" are their primary interests in life. Others are just too busy. How many people are working two jobs simply to make ends meet? After a hard day's work, they simply don't have the energy to sit and read several newspapers and magazines and watch MSNBC, FOX and the BBC to get as many sides of the story as possible to come to an educated opinion on any one of a multitude of issues of the day. They get a snippet here and there. What ever of those makes the most sense to them and follows their individual beliefs becomes their truth.

Romney lied through his teeth during the debate. How many people watching actually had the slightest idea that many of his answers were not only untruthful but totally opposite of his positions over the past year(s)? Does that make them idiots? Not really. It's more likely that they, for the reasons stated above, among others, just don't have the time, patience or comprehension to sort through all the information being offered at rapid fire in a ninety minute beauty pageant. But is it fair to call them idiots?