Cynical Nation

It must be killing them to have to write this.

The number of new U.S. jobs soared at the sharpest rate in seven months in October, the government reported on Friday, helped by a surge in construction activity as hurricane-racked areas in the Southeast were rebuilt.

A surprisingly strong 337,000 jobs were added to payrolls last month -- twice the 169,000-job growth that Wall Street economists had forecast. However, the unemployment rate edged up to 5.5 percent from 5.4 percent in September as more people joined the search for employment, the Labor Department said.

Rest assured, if Tuesday had played out differently, this would herald the beginning of the much-anticipated "Kerry Recovery!" Thank God Kerry didn't get elected. It would mark the second consecutive time that a Democratic president would receive credit for an economic expansion he had nothing to do with (well, other than attempt to thwart it, in Kerry's case.)

UPDATE: No wonder Paul Krugman is taking a vacation.