Here’s the question the Democrats can’t answer. Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
If Team Obama says yes, then they are clearly out of touch regarding an economy that has had 42 straight months of 8 percent or higher unemployment and in which the average household has gone backward in terms of income and net worth.
So if we are not better off than we were four years ago, then Mr. Obama has to shift the blame, and he will, as he already has, saying it’s all the Republicans’ fault, that Bush’s economy was worse than he knew, and that the Republicans have blocked all of his best efforts. But this excuse neglects the fact that the Democrats ran Congress with a free hand from 2006 (before the meltdown) to 2010 (two years after Mr. Obama took office). So the president got everything of substance that he wanted, including an $831 billion stimulus and ObamaCare. And what do we have to show for it, other than more debt and a tepid “recovery”?
And, yes, the Republicans, using the 2010 “shellacking” administered to Democrats as a mandate, have blocked many of the latest initiatives of Mr. Obama, who has responded by bypassing the legal process and the authority of Congress to get what he wants. But even if it were true that the Republicans have stymied the president, does he not realize that this makes him out to be a weak and ineffective leader? If the only way he can get things done is to control all branches of government, then he is clearly not up to the job.
Remember, Mitt Romney got things done in mostly Democratic Massachusetts. Presidents don’t get graded on effort, but on results. The fact is, we are not better off than we were four years ago–not even close.
