This is quite disconcerting, to say the least. Any yokel who would tell you that this is the best economy our nation has ever seen has taken one too many shots of tequila in his day (if that applies to a certain government leader in Washington, sobeit).

Jonathan Brinckman of The Oregonian writes that at least one state's economy is still in the tanks, even if the current administration would have you think otherwise.

The state lost 3,200 jobs last month, according to a preliminary estimate by the Oregon Employment Department, despite gaining more manufacturing and trade jobs than expected.

Job levels in most sectors of the economy, including finance and hospitality, were below expectations. The state unemployment rate in October was 7.2 percent, remaining chronically high, according to the Employment Department.

"We're in a soft patch," said state economist Tom Potiowsky. "It's a period of slowness."

In September, the last month for which comparative figures are available, Oregon's seasonally adjusted rate was 7.3 percent, compared with the nation's 5.5 percent. Oregon's September unemployment rate was higher than any other state's, except Alaska's at 7.9 percent.

September marked Oregon's 39th consecutive month with the nation's highest or second-highest unemployment rate, said Art Ayre, the state employment economist.

"We had pretty strong job growth in the first half of 2004, but since July it's pretty much flattened," Ayre said. "Things are pretty stagnant."

For another take on the story, check out Toby Manthey's article in today's Salem Statesman-Journal.

The fact is that Oregon's economy is stagnating, and this administration either does not care about the problem or they don't know how to fix it.

On a broad range of issues, in fact, this explanation holds true. Either Bush and the Republicans don't care about the problem or they don't know how to fix it (if this sounds familiar, I think something similar is said at the end of The American President). Perhaps this might be a good message to pass on to the electorate in the years to come, though.