Results Matter

President Bush, Friday.

"We are turning the corner and we are not turning back" in the war on terrorism and on issues from improving education and health care to maintaining the tax cuts he has put in place, said Bush, declaring: "Results matter."

Agreed. Here are the lastest results.

a) U.S. oil prices notched up a fresh record high above $44 a barrel on Wednesday, fanning growing concern that consistently high prices are denting global economic growth.

b) American consumer spending dropped 0.7 percent in June, the steepest monthly fall since September 2001, the government reported Tuesday. With income growth stalling as well, the numbers raised new concerns about the strength of the economic expansion.

...

The June results "raise increasingly serious questions about the strength and sustainability of the economy in the months ahead," said Charles McMillion, president and chief economist of MBG Information Services.

c) It was only an exhibition game, the first time the current U.S. Olympic basketball team has played a game overseas, but the result exposed all its weaknesses, showed the perils of youth in international competition and might have announced the Olympic gold medal is up for grabs.

...

The Italian Olympic team, with crisp ball movement and deft three-point shooting, defeated the USA 95-78 Tuesday in Cologne, Germany.

Okay, so maybe the last one isn't his fault. Still, the first two seem to hint that the "steady growth, steady growth" the President talks about may be just that -- talk.