That's been the constant theme from the Romney campaign since Day One — either that Obama made things worse, or that without him things would have been much better.
Economists seem to differ.
Embedded Link
PERRspectives: Romney's Big Lie on the Economy Now Bigger than Ever
Google+: View post on Google+
43 view(s)
I think this is a sticky one for any president to contend with. You can throw all the facts and figures you want out there, but if people are having tough times, money-wise, they're going to pin the blame on the man in the Oval Office….regardless of whether it's actually his fault, or not.
Telling someone working two jobs who can't make their bills "Hey, cheer up, the economy is fine!" isn't going to convince them it's so.
Most people judge the economy by their immediate circumstances. I live in a rural, largely Republican area. Here, the economy is still quite depressed — and this primes people to believe that there really isn't a recovery.
Blaming the president for the current state of the economy is an Ancient Tradition in the USA. Had McCain won, we'd be having the exact same conversation in reverse.
Meh, that's partially true. There were some dramatic actions that could have been taken by the government in his first year or so that might have led to a faster turnaround. So in a way, yes, this is his fault, because there were options to improve the situation that were not exercised because he had not the will to do them.
But did his decisions make it worse? No, not at all. In fact, they helped. Just not as much as they could have.
His opponents' proposed policies would have sunk us harder. Also significantly, there were other things that probably would have balked an executive effort to fix the problem even if he had made it. Things went from difficult to impossible during the Tea Party uprising. What could have been done from the executive seat along at that point was fairly limited.
So overall, while Obama could have done a better job, any current Republican-platformer would have been a catastrophic in the same position. Unfortunately, that's a hard message to sell. "I didn't do great, but my opponent will make it much worse," doesn't really pack the kind of power you want in an add. Especially when most people vote economics based on referendum alone.
Agreed all around, +Mark Means, +Kit Malone, +Gary Roth. No matter the cogent arguments, no matter how backed up they are, no matter how much worse the opponent hypothetically would have (or did, or will) screw things over, the basic, "I'm not happy right here, right now, throw the bums out" sentiment is large. Humans aren't always the sharpest knives in the drawer.