Twitter Gone Crazy: Former GE CEO Jack Welch Inspires Web-Wide Obama Conspiracy

We should all thank Twitter for a world where powerful people can say delightfully crazy things without the silly filter of public relations professional protecting their reputation. This morning, in response to a promising jobs report, Former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, accused President Obama of manipulating the numbers. “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers,” he tweeted. His bold conspiracy theory inspired the outer rim of conservatives to come out of the woodwork to defend him, and an equally entertaining response from prominent economists–all of which we’ve posted below for your friday enjoyment.

Austan Goolsbee, Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, was up at bat first, quickly retorting:

Reuters Financial Blogger, Felix Salmon, was a close second:

But, thankfully, reasonableness didn’t stop defenders of Welch with a hair-trigger mouse finger and an Internet connection.

Representative Allen West, who once said that there were “78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party,” tweeted:

Conn Carroll, Washington Examiner senior writer, thought it was a much (much) bigger conspiracy of Democrats around the country lying about their employment status:

Fox News’ Stuart Varney thought the jobs report was too “convenient”:

Frequent Fox News guest, Laura Ingraham, was a tad more blunt

The whole crazy parade prompted Washington Post economics blogger, Ezra Klein, to write a post debunking the myth

An aide to Welch said he couldn’t give comment because he was in a meeting. We imagine Jack Welch is helping Big Bird plan for retirement.