The question Americans should be asking ourselves isn’t whether we’re better off than we were four years ago. It’s whether we’re better off than we were 80 years ago. …
Mitt Romney himself has drawn attention to the implicit parallel between the crises faced by Hoover and Obama. “This is the slowest job recovery since Hoover,” Romney declared in June 2011. He did not, of course, intend the association to be a positive one for the current president. …
Timing is critical to public perception. The fact that Barack Obama took office only four months after an economic collapse has made it possible for his opponents to convince many voters that it is his policies, not those of his predecessor that are at fault. [cont.]
Robert S. McElvaine, Millsaps College (NYT)