On the Recovery
Each line on this graph charts the unemployment problem in the nation's various post-war recessions. The red line marks the current, prolonged Great Recession, which began in December of 2007. You can clearly see that the bottom of the unemployment trough came at month 24 (December 2009, 10 months into the Obama presidency), at which point it began a long, slow and still incomplete recovery.
President Obama took office in late January 2009. His policies were implemented -- despite constant and unrelenting opposition by the Republican Party -- through the spring, summer and fall, and ultimately these [admittedly too timid] changes did in fact begin to turn the economy around.
No one is saying the job is complete, and no one can be satisfied that enough has yet been done (particularly when it comes to mortgage modifications, foreclosure relief and additional stimulus spending), but as the red line in the graph shows, this ship has been turned, the iceberg avoided.
Now, if the Republicans would stop sabotaging the nation's fiscal health for the sole purpose of making the President look bad, we might be able to make some real advances. I believe the voters have awakened to the GOP's protracted policy of economic sabotage, and for that they will be repudiated and soundly defeated in November of 2012.
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