14 thoughts on “Obama’s Campaign Narrative”

  1. While the article is correct, I look at a different hole. It’s not what they do from year to year. It the continuing each year to kick the can down the road. We’ve reached the point that it will take decades of pain to fix the problem regardless of who is in office.

    It could even be that the republicans get into office, do everything right and for generations are blamed for the crash that nobody can avoid.

    Does anybody know what $222T is?

  2. …it doesn’t matter what we say here, AAs are going to wind up in chains. I’m ashamed to be an American.

    (..primarily because enough American people are JUST dumb enough to believe Biden’s idiot remarks!!!)

  3. How can anyone write an article comparing the depths of two recessions without even mentioning the respective declines in GDP?

    Carter himself described the mess the country was in as a “malaise.”

    No, he didn’t.

    Does Novak know anything?

    1. Under Reagan, the gross national product, spurred by incentives rather than punishments, grew by $2.44 trillion, almost 83 percent.

      Closing out his fourth year in office, President Obama has an 8.3 percent unemployment rate, the lowest rate of participation in the labor force in 30 years (63.7 percent), and more Americans out of work and out of the work force than in any of the preceding 30 years. There are also over 7 million more persons in poverty now than when he took office

      But nevermind, Carter didn’t actually say “malaise.”

      1. So Novak misquotes Carter, but you’re going to trust the rest of his article?

        Again, Novak never says how deep the early 80s recession was in terms of GDP loss, compared to the 2008 recession. The US economy shrunk by nearly 10% in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month when Obama took office. Did Reagan face anything that severe?

        1. I have a harder time believing wikipedia. Let’s look further than wikipedia:

          Though he never used the word — Caddell had in his memo — it became known as Carter’s “malaise” speech.

          Oh, so Carter never used the actual word. He just gave a speech based on a memo recommending he address the malaise. It’s not important that Carter didn’t use the term. The fact that the situation described by the word existed; we’re supposed to ignore it, when even Carter could no longer ignore it?

          Let’s look again what Novak wrote:
          “Carter himself described the mess the country was in as a “malaise.””
          The only inaccuracy is the quote seem to suggest a direct quote rather than a paraphrase, when Carter’s speech was actually a paraphrase of the word “malaise” used by his advisor.

          1. Let’s look again what Novak wrote

            Yes, let’s.

            The only inaccuracy is the quote seem to suggest a direct quote rather than a paraphrase

            It doesn’t suggest a direct quote, it is a direct quote. Here are two statements:

            Carter himself described the mess the country was in as a “malaise.”

            Carter himself did not describe the mess the country was in as a “malaise.”

            One of these statements is true. The other was in Novak’s piece.

        2. As for the comparison to other recessions; I agree its a waste of time. Let’s just look at Obama’s record. He pushed for and got the ARRA, which he promised would resolve the recession. There’s two ways to look at the results:

          1) Either the ARRA never really worked like the opposition claimed.
          2) The ARRA did work, but now Obama has lead us into what appears to be another recession (though we need to see one more quarter to be official).

          No need to compare, Obama’s record on handling the economy is bad, and it’s why he needs to go.

    2. The speech in question is widely known, even by leftists at PBS and the NYT, as Carter’s malaise speech. He didn’t have to use the word. The picture he painted was of malaise — even to the Left.

      I was in grad school during the Carter administration, and my memory of the whole period is of one, long, dark winter night. Believe me, we were in the depths of malaise.

  4. >We were losing 800,000 jobs a month when Obama took office. Did Reagan face anything that severe?

    Jim, you are correct that the mess Reagan inherited wasn’t as bad as the one Obama inherited.

    No, in point of fact, it was WORSE.

    http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/02/broader-unemployment-rates-going-back.html

    Notice how the biggest peak since the [last] Great Depression occurs at the start of Reagan’s term (just before his supply-side tax cuts kicked in.) Meanwhile, I think this insightful chart deserves another airing:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/president-obamas-job-creation-problem–in-one-chart/2012/08/02/gJQA58tsRX_blog.html?fb_ref=sm_btn_fb

    1. Reagan also had to contend with double-digit inflation and interest rates. Today, you can get a mortgage at less than 3% interest rates. Back then, rates were over 15%, near credit card levels! My wife and I bought our first home in 1986 at 9.5% and thought we were getting a deal. Compared to just a few years earlier, we were.

  6. What was the national debt when President Reagan took office, and when he left? What did Reagan campaign on as regarding Carter’s enormous yearly deficits?

    How much spending would President Obama have to do to equal the stimulus deficits President Reagan was running for 8 years?

    Retorical questions.

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