FoxNews.com (excerpt):  Merciless mocking from Republicans hasn't put President Obama off his focus on the economy, as the White House insisted Thursday that the president is taking "enormously seriously" the hardships Americans are enduring.  "It is patently obvious that the president is focused on the economy, that he takes enormously seriously the hardships that Americans continue to endure," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.  Earlier in the week, at a jobs council meeting, the president was called out for saying that "shovel-ready projects" weren't quite as shovel-ready as he thought.  Then later, in an interview with NBC News, Obama suggested that innovation and technology - like job stealing ATMs - were reasons why the employment rate was not rebounding as quickly as he had hoped.  "There's some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers," Obama said after being asked about a report that shows businesses were spending 2% more on employees since the recession officially ended, but 26% more on equipment.  "You see it when you go to a bank and...you use an ATM, you don't go to a bank teller.  Or you go to the airport and you're using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate," the president said.  Republicans who are ratcheting up pressure on Democrats this week by highlighting the first anniversary of what was once dubbed "recovery summer," roasted the president for the comment.  "I didn't do it," read a guest blog posted on House Speaker John Boehner's site.  The blog was signed by "the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) in your favorite convenience store near the Slurpee Machine."  In the sarcastic post, the ATM author blamed high taxes, burdensome regulation, and excessive spending for the slow jobs report...read more  

My Comments:  Would someone like to explain to our president just how long ATM machines and kiosks have been around and that they have never plummeted the economy before?  I think if the president wants to take the hardships Americans are enduring "enormously seriously," why doesn't he just go out and visit some of these "tent cities" spread out all over America, which are populated by people having lost their jobs, their homes and some of them even their cars; yes, some are not only living in tents, but they have no vehicle to get around.  I think he doesn't want the cameras focusing on the "tent cities" that are forming throughout America, which are literally a 2011 portrait of the "great depression," while he is campaigning right now.  I invite you to visit the News Videos page on this website to view some of these tent cities for yourself.  This will give you a real picture of the economic situation brought on by Barack Obama's administration.  We are soon headed for economic disaster on an unimaginable scale, but of course, this is his goal.  Socialist dictatorships can't form without a crisis first.  Revelation 6:5-6 "When he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see, and I saw a black horse and he who sat on the horse had a pair of balances in his hand; and I hear a voice among the four beasts say, 'A measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny, and see that you do not hurt the oil or the wine.'"  All Bible historians recognize this as famine during the great tribulation period.  With millions of fish dying throughout the globe and storms and floods ruining crops, put together with the increase in gasoline prices and the economic crisis, it is all thrusting us into a total economic collapse and wide scale food shortages.  I don't believe it will happen gradually though, I think the great collapse will happen suddenly.  I did see gas prices go down a bit very recently.  It would seem that Mr. Obama's friends probably want to see him get through this election, before they let it all fall apart - suddenly.  The Bible says in I Thessalonians 5:3 (concerning the last days) "When they say, 'peace and safety,' then sudden destruction will come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they will not escape."  This is speaking of the tribulation which will soon come upon all the earth.  Mark 13:8 "Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places."  If you haven't received Jesus as your Savior, I invite you to visit the How Can I Be Saved page on this website.  God has made a way of escape for His people.