Trying too hard

WISC-TV has a section on their website where they post the "Reality Check" segment of their newscast. That segment examines what candidates say on the campaign trail and in their commercials and tries to match what they say to facts. They recently posted a segment about the debate where they try too hard to say both candidates are right about everything they argued about at the debate.

When it came to the jobs portion of the debate, Congressman Mark Green tried to say that Wisconsin is losing jobs under Governor Doyle, but the facts don't back up Green. Here is what WISC posted about it:

The candidates also couldn't agree on whether there are more or fewer jobs in Wisconsin under Doyle's watch.

"When I took office we were losing jobs and we have been gaining jobs in Wisconsin," Doyle said.

"The sad reality is we obviously are losing jobs," Green said.

Who's right? Again, it's a mixed bag.

According to the federal government, Wisconsin has gained 177,000 jobs since Doyle took office, and manufacturing jobs are up 7,600 while many other manufacturing states have lost jobs.

Ummm, where is the mixed part? Not only has Wisconsin gained jobs, our state has bucked a national trend on manufacturing. Those jobs typically pay family-supporting wages so they are a great addition to our economy.

You can find the story here if you need to make sure I didn't cut out only the part I wanted to use.