First there were the birthers, people who can't seem to believe that President Obama was indeed born in the United States. And now come the truthers, those who think that the president and his Democratic crew were somehow able to cook the unemployment numbers to show the lowest jobless rate in 44 months. 

It all started Friday after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the unemployment rate for September was at 7.8 percent. Shortly afterwards, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, asserted that the numbers were actually rigged by Obama and his campaign team.

"Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers," Welch tweeted.

The Associated Press took the time to round up some more statements that supported Welch's conspiracy theory and some that dismissed it as pure garbage. 

— "Somehow by manipulation of data we are all of a sudden below 8 percent unemployment, a month from the Presidential election. This is Orwellian to say the least ..." said Rep. Allen West, R-Fla.
— "I don't think (the Bureau of Labor Statistics) cooked numbers. I think a bunch of Dems lied about getting jobs. That would have same effect," tweeted Conn Carroll, an editorial writer at the Washington Examiner.
— "If there's anyone who knows about slashing American jobs, it's Jack Welch. He was the real outsourcing pioneer," said Scott Paul, executive director of Alliance for American Manufacturing
— "Stop with the dumb conspiracy theories. Good grief," said Tony Fratto, who worked for President George W. Bush. He said that the Bureau of Labor Statists is not manipulating data, adding: "I'll be in China in a couple of weeks if you want to see some (asterisk)real(asterisk) economic data manipulation!"
— "It appears that Obama has hired infamous Iraqi Information Minister Baghdad Bob to calculate the unemployment rate. Anyone who takes this unemployment report serious is either naïve or a paid Obama campaign adviser," Rick Manning, the communications director of Americans for Limited Government, said in a statement.
—"Today's jobs report raises questions for me, and, frankly, it should be raising eyebrows for people across the country," Rep. Paul Broun, R-M.D. said in a statement.

— Welch "just labeled himself an idiot," said Justin Wolfers, a professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

If these folks think they are helping Mitt Romney in his quest for the White House they should think again. It just isn't possible for the president and his supporters to cook the data. Not. Possible.

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(Photo: Twitter)