Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) rightly explained that when President Obama said the private sector was “doing fine,” he was trying to point out that by comparison, the public sector was doing way worse. The private vs. public employment record seems obvious to those who don’t want to see Willard Romney in the White House.

Of course, then-Governor Romney’s record was nothing to crow about, but it’s way more important for the media to pounce on an out-of-context comment by the president.

AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka in response to these comments by Willard:

“Mitt Romney says he wants fewer teachers; that means larger classrooms. He says he wants fewer firefighters; that means less safety. Rich people will still have good protection… He wants fewer police officers; that means we’re in danger.”

O’Malley:

“It’s as if we take two or three steps forward and one or two steps back. For every three jobs created by the private sector we eliminate a public sector job – teachers, firefighters, police – and that puts a drag on the economy.”

“Last year more jobs were created in the private sector of our country’s economy than in all eight years of President Bush, and that was true in 2010. So I think that President Obama absolutely needs to take away the false assertions of Mitt Romney that he created jobs either in the private sector or in Massachusetts.”

Willard wants to go back to a Bush economy. How’d that work out for America, Mr. Business Genius?

Note the public sector job numbers under both Bush and Obama. Somehow under W, rising public sector employment was okay with the GOP, but if the Dems want to hang on to those jobs, it’s some kind of Kenyan Marxist commie union thug plot to destroy America: