I was sort of wrong....it was originally invented by Arthur Okun who worked under Kennedy according to the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/12/politics/trail/12TRAIL-MISERY.html?ex=1082433600&en=ca921b179fab5471&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLEBio on Okun:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Okun.htmlThis glossary of terms states Carter coined the phrase "misery index"
http://www.museum.tv/debateweb/html/curriculum/history/glossary.htmHere's C-span concurring with the above:
http://www.c-span.org/classroom/govt/1976.aspCarter initially looked good with this. His numbers in 76 & 77 were better than Ford's last two years. He just got hammered in 78 & 79.
"As to your basic point, I don't know if this was a great idea to blunt WSJ saying low inflation and relatively low unemployment means Bush is an economic great - or -"
I just get this feeling that there is a need to "convince" people the economy sucks. That tells me two things the campaign think; fears of an economic uptick will take all the wind out of the economy attack sails & inability to make shitty economy charges stick. Not that those are mutually exclusive. Though I can't imagine jobs catching up to any economic growth within a timeframe where Bush will be able to campaign on it.
"this was a lousy idea showing an ability to make poor decisions in the kerry camp - making a higher misery index a positive just will not compute for most folks."
Well if Bush can do Orwell...why not Kerry ;-)
Okay joking aside, I would agree. It's kind of like Alexa numbers, while they make sense when you know the scale it just feels....unnatural...for lack of a better word.