While Republican hopefuls have been campaigning for months, and conservative pundits have been indoctrinating the impressionable for years, the President of the United States has been cleaning up a world class mess.
When Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, the U.S. economy was in pretty good shape. Then we had eight years of leadership straight out of Bizarro World. Tax cuts and deregulation were the watchwords for better government.
The Sept. 11 attacks occurred, and we justifiably went to Afghanistan. But somewhere along the line, Iraq became our first priority. Rather than going in to win, the president decided to fight his daddy's war. That made Iraq a short-term limited conflict. Even though he declared "Mission Accomplished!" U.S. troops kept serving and dying there for ten more years.
On housing, President Bush unveiled his Blueprint for the American Dream in 2002. That initiative led Fannie Mae to pursue a goal of helping six million first time homebuyers, including about two million minorities purchase homes before 2014.
Then, in love with the free market, the Bush Administration failed to act on what by 2006 was a looming economic course adjustment of worldwide proportions. The results included massive job losses, the near collapse of the banking system and stalled manufacturing that prompted the disappearances of a number of great brand names that had been around for most of the last century.
While it all cannot be blamed on George W. Bush, there is no doubt that the economy was a basket case in January of 2009. We know that TARP and TANF were ideas pushed through to stave off economic Armageddon.
Conservative revisionists may try to put those programs on President Obama, but that is revisionist nonsense.
In the three years President Obama has been in office, most of the TARP money has been paid back, American manufacturing is in the rebound, and private sector jobs are up by more than 3 million in 22 months. We are also out of Iraq, Osama Bin Laden and dozens of other top terrorists are dead and the Taliban are ready to talk about peace.
Now we have the 2012 presidential campaign. Vying for the Republican nomination are one man who made millions picking the bones of troubled companies. The other major GOP candidate is made big money lobbying for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and mouthing off for conservative media outlets. The State of the Union is behind us. The choices are already relatively clear.
When Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, the U.S. economy was in pretty good shape. Then we had eight years of leadership straight out of Bizarro World. Tax cuts and deregulation were the watchwords for better government.The Sept. 11 attacks occurred, and we justifiably went to Afghanistan. But somewhere along the line, Iraq became our first priority. Rather than going in to win, the president decided to fight his daddy's war. That made Iraq a short-term limited conflict. Even though he declared "Mission Accomplished!" U.S. troops kept serving and dying there for ten more years.
On housing, President Bush unveiled his Blueprint for the American Dream in 2002. That initiative led Fannie Mae to pursue a goal of helping six million first time homebuyers, including about two million minorities purchase homes before 2014.
Then, in love with the free market, the Bush Administration failed to act on what by 2006 was a looming economic course adjustment of worldwide proportions. The results included massive job losses, the near collapse of the banking system and stalled manufacturing that prompted the disappearances of a number of great brand names that had been around for most of the last century.While it all cannot be blamed on George W. Bush, there is no doubt that the economy was a basket case in January of 2009. We know that TARP and TANF were ideas pushed through to stave off economic Armageddon.
Conservative revisionists may try to put those programs on President Obama, but that is revisionist nonsense.
In the three years President Obama has been in office, most of the TARP money has been paid back, American manufacturing is in the rebound, and private sector jobs are up by more than 3 million in 22 months. We are also out of Iraq, Osama Bin Laden and dozens of other top terrorists are dead and the Taliban are ready to talk about peace.
Now we have the 2012 presidential campaign. Vying for the Republican nomination are one man who made millions picking the bones of troubled companies. The other major GOP candidate is made big money lobbying for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and mouthing off for conservative media outlets. The State of the Union is behind us. The choices are already relatively clear.
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