Socialists in Spain prepare for historic defeat

President Obama hardest hit...

(AP)- Polls indicate Zapatero's party could suffer the humiliation of losing historic Socialist strongholds.

The financial crisis has forced deep cuts and left Spain burdened with 21.3 percent unemployment, the highest of any nation using the Euro as its currency. The jobless rate among the young stands at 40 percent and a total of 4.9 million people are out of work in Spain, the highest number since 1997.

A large proportion of those in work earn just €1,000 ($1,400) or less per month.

Spain is forecasting limp growth of just 1.3 percent for itself in 2011, but even the Bank of Spain has rated that prediction as optimistic.

Unemployment is over 20% in Spain. It will take Obama a second term to raise unemployment that high here in America.

Every Green Job Created Destroys 2.2 Other Jobs

Spain is considered a leader in green-job governmental activism. An authoritive new study show 2.2 jobs are destroyed for every new green job created in Spain. The data was treated optimistically and the results for green job creation could actually be lower. Only 10 percent of the green jobs created were permanent. Rasmussen Reports Reported:

Well, in March, one of Spain's leading universities, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, published an authoritative study "of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources." The report pointed out: "This study is important for several reasons. First is that the Spanish experience is considered a leading example to be followed by many policy advocates and politicians. This study marks the very first time a critical analysis of the actual performance and impact has been made. Most important, it demonstrates that the Spanish/EU-style 'green jobs' agenda now being promoted in the U.S. in fact destroys jobs, detailing this in terms of jobs destroyed per job created."

The central finding of the study is that -- treating the data optimistically -- for every renewable-energy job that the government finances, "Spain's experience . reveals with high confidence, by two different methods, that the U.S. should expect a loss of at least 2.2 jobs on average, or about 9 jobs lost for every 4 created."

Despite expensive and extensive green-job policies, a surprisingly low number of jobs were created. And about two-thirds of those "green" jobs were just to set up the energy source, in construction, fabrication, installation, marketing and administration. Only 10 percent of the green jobs created were permanent jobs actually operating and maintaining the renewable sources of energy.