Being There

Not content to sit behind the big desk and reap the credit for an economic recovery that should have bounced us back on our feet, President Obama decided that he had to "do something" for our economy instead of just standing there like he should have. That something was to let Congress pass a long-standing wish list of liberal spending programs that benefited the Democratic majority by targeting spending to those places rather than places where the economy needed it quickly:

President Obama may have inherited a tough recession from Bush and the Democratic Congress, but this could have worked out very well for him since just being there while historical forces pushed us back to growth would have given him the chance to claim that as a success:

In truth, one might say that Barack Obama was elected at a very enviable time. He came into office when the economy was down but poised to start recovering within the next several months. All he had to do was be within the ballpark of the historical rate of 5% real growth coming out of recessions (or 6.2% coming out of longer recessions), not do anything horribly unpopular — like spearheading the passage of ObamaCare — and he could have ridden to an easy victory in 2012.

Now he'll have to get the American people to validate both ObamaCare and a growth rate that's less than half of what his predecessors generally achieved under similar circumstances.

But he's from the government. And he's here to help. God help us all.