Remember when Christine Romer, an Obama economic adviser, said that if we did not pass the stimulus program, the unemployment rate would go to 8%? Soon after the stimulus was passed, however weak, unemployment shot past 8% like a rocket. Soon after that, Ms Romer left the Administration and Republicans have been making hay off those comments ever since. However, they lie about it. They give Obama the blame for saying unemployment would not go above 8% when it was actually Christine Romer.
Although the President did not say those comments about the stimulus, he did say that the people would judge the job that he has done in three years and decide whether or not he deserved another term? He seems to be backing away from those comments just a little at the present time. The economy is not doing as well as maybe the President expected it to do?
The Republicans are attacking the President on the worst economy since the Great Depression. People have lost an average of $4000 per middle class family. There have been 42 straight months of unemployment above 8%. One in six Americans are now in poverty. Obama may have inherited a mess but he has only made it worse, the Republicans say.
From the day he took office, the President did not give the Republicans the blame they deserved for running our country so far into debt, cutting regulations, or letting the economic system collapse around our ears. He accepted responsibility. And the Republicans are more than happy to give it to him.
In hindsight, it was probably a huge mistake not to glue this economic catastrophe to the Republican Party for the next 40 years, just like FDR did after the Great Depression? Now, it is considered to be the sole property of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party and the Republican Party is getting off scot-free from any ownership of the present economy.
But many could see, four years ago, that it would take a long time to get out of this mess. And we are still in a mess, even though the stock market is doing much better and many in our society are doing quite well. The poverty rate continues to increase and the unemployment rate is actually much higher than officially reported. And it is the fault of Barack Obama because he accepted it. That is the way the Republicans want to re-write history. I don't believe it is fair. I think we should have used the economic collapse just like FDR used it but we didn't. I think that will turn out to be an historic political blunder.