Little-Noticed Fact: Average Job Creation in 2011 Falls Below 2010 Levels, Pointing To a Slowing Economy, Not a Growing One

Disaster.

Meanwhile, Obama's best bet is lowered expectations. Which is pretty much the story of his life. If he can get people to accept that the best we can hope for is just shy of catastrophic, people might sign on for four more years of Hell.

This may be the best he can do, but it's not the best we can do.

The Democrats’ message to wavering, undecided voters was summarized by Bill Clinton Wednesday night:

“No president — not me, not any of my predecessors — no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years.”

This is as good as it gets: A crappy recovery, 8 percent unemployment as far as the eye can see, constant talk of tax hikes and chronic class envy, and another trillion dollars of debt thrown on the backs of our children each year.

That’s it? The best we can do? There were no better ideas than Barack Obama’s failed stimulus, no leader who could have gotten us better results?

Republicans are quick to point out that at least one president already did: Ronald Reagan. He inherited an economic collapse, an energy crisis, inflation around 18 percent, interest rates at 21 percent — all with the constant threat of an expanding Soviet empire looming in the background.

Four years later, America had the fastest growth and the lowest inflation in the Western industrialized world.

Liberal Tim Noah didn't care for Obama's speech.

Watching President Obama give his nomination speech last night, it occurred to me for the first time that he might actually lose.

Rereading the speech this morning, I find that (as Mark Twain once said about Wagner) it wasn’t as bad as it sounded... But the speech still possessed several glaring faults.

Stuff omitted. He then quotes Obama's new "Long Hard Slog" mantra.

We’re dangerously close to Jimmy Carter territory here. First, there’s the boast (“You elected me to tell you the truth”) disguised as an expression of humility (“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy”).

....

Worst of all, though, was Obama’s statement that “not every problem can be remedied with another government program or dictate from Washington.” It combined an opportunistic (and probably insincere) echo of Bill Clintons irritating pronouncement in 1996 that “the era of big government is over” (which wasn’t even true) with a hint of Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech assertion that the country’s crisis of confidence was too big a problem for a president to solve on his own. Even when it’s true that the fault lies in our selves, not in our stars, who wants to hear it from the country’s biggest star?

A reader wrote to me that he thinks Obama's new favorite pronoun -- "you, you, you" instead of "I, I, I" -- is intended to be a subtle indication that it's not Obama that's failed, it's that you need to do more. We -- meaning you -- really have to get our acts together so that we (you) can fix this.

We've seen this before from him, too.

Obama of course is now claiming he "never told you this was going to be quick or easy," or words to that effect. But he did previously offer a 3 year deadline:

Seems to me that three and a half years ago he thought it would only take three years. Now he's telling us that it'll take four, five, six, seven. Who knows. And as he says this, he says "I never told you any differently."

Meanwhile, even Jon Stewart realizes that Obama has failed to deliver.

I said in the comments: In 2008, Obama was a man like no other who's ever existed who would Save Mankind.

In 2012, he's runnin' as just a regular guy, just amblin' along, tryin' to do the best he can. Win some, lose some. Needs more time.

In 2008, he was a MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE!

In 2012, he's a victim of circumstance.

He's failed as thoroughly as a president can fail.

By all means, let's hire him up again, and let him fail some more.

posted by Ace at 07:02 PM

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