The only possible explanation for John Kerry's continued talking about the Great Depression is that he's discussing his own state of mind. The new unemployment numbers came out today, and instead of affirming Kerry's charge that this is the worst jobs market since the FDR presidency, the Labor Department that the number of people receiving unemployment benefits has dropped to its lowest level since May 2001:

Even though the Labor Department reported a slight rise in first-time jobless claims, the market wasn't alarmed, given that claims are still far lower than a year ago, and the number of people currently receiving unemployment insurance is at a three-year low. ...

The Labor Department said there were 352,000 first-time unemployment claims last week, up 12,000 from the week before but down from 424,000 in the same week a year ago. In addition, the number of people drawing unemployment insurance fell by 106,000 to 2.88 million for the week ending May 29 — the lowest level since May 2001.

Since the beginning of the year, we've added almost a million new jobs to the economy and kept unemployment under the average of the 1990s. In fact, the economy and the jobs picture look better now than at the beginning of the Bush presidency, and that was before the enormous economic damage caused by the 9/11 attacks and the disruption in transportation. The US remains on track to add another million jobs by the time the election rolls around.

Just remember that when Kerry talks about great depressions, he's watching the economic indicators through the filter of this election -- and the poor man can't bring himself to enjoy American success. When he bets short and it goes long, small wonder he's depressed.

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