Predicting the next Mitt gaffe: Embracing Poland's economy.

According to the WSJ, Mitt's going to give a speech tomorrow "lauding Poland's relatively robust growth and spotlighting how a Romney presidency would tighten ties with the central European country."

So I thought I'd provide advanced critique of yet another Mitt gaffe.  Of course if we know what he's going to be talking about, then it's not really a gaffe, but rather a sign of blatant ignorance of the facts.  So onto the critique in two sets of charts.

A comparison of demographics, annually 2000 - 2012 (World Bank via tradingeconomics)

Something is not quite right in Poland, don't you think?  Poland's population is still down 0.66% over the last 12 years, while the US' population has increased 10.4%.

12 years of unemployment rates, monthly. (EU)

Two things to note, right?  First is, that Poland's unemployment drop nearly corresponds to its population decrease.  The second thing to note, is that under Obama, unemployment did rise, but it also fell, and is lower than the first full month after the stimulus passed, and is lower than when he first took office, but Poland's unemployment rose and now sits 1.7 percentage points above the US rate.

NOTE: I would have compared labor participation rates, but the European Union's stats indicate that Poland's numbers are unreliable.  That does raise concerns that Poland's figures for unemployment might be manipulated or otherwise poorly tracked, but the EU did not flag it as such.

You'd have to be a fool to want to wish this sort of economy upon America.  What in the world was Mitt thinking?

I'm not even going to bring up the GDP/capita or the US' purchasing power over Poland.  This is just nuts that, of all people, Mitt would distinguish Poland's economy as something worthy of embracing -- I thought he had a business degree?  I have an idea: Let's encourage conservative Republicans to MOVE to Poland!