The numbers make the grade. If you have a problem with President Obama it's not his job performance. He has kept the country out of war, and improved the economy. He has proven himself to be worthy of the office. If you don't approve be honest enough to give the real reason. These are number you can believe in.
Lets face it...the truth, i guess one can't please and satisfy/proof to satisfy people all the time and everywhere,...that is just the way life's like, whether perfect, good, clean, bad, grim, unclean...people will talk and fuss and say what's wrong with this or that or what's up with that?!...its called LIFE!...just my $0.02.
He has done an ok job with certain things he has done over his presidency and has passed bills that I agree with. I think he just should have been around more addressing the country and explaining things to us. That is really my only complaint. I love to hear the man speak.
Tell me what he has to do with all of that? How do you give him credit for the Dow being up, for example? Do you credit Bush for the Dow nearly doubling from 2002 to 2007 as well? We were in a recession. We came out of the recession. Things always look far better on paper in the years following a recession. The fed has kept rates low and printed and pumped in money for 6 years. These things happen regardless of who is in office. Sometimes policy can get in the way, but it rarely has much to do with private sector growth and prosperity, which are best achieved when the private sector is allowed to do its thing in a business-friendly environment. Hopefully someday another administration will decide to OK a zero % corporate tax - then you'll see real growth. Growth has actually been sluggish due to increasing taxes and regulations, and the labor participation rate is at a 35+ year low.
He really has gone very grey over the past 6 years hasn't he! That's what having a stressful job does to you!
+1 to JR's post. The unemployment figure is BS because there are so many people who have simply given up on finding work. The REAL unemployment rate is in the double digits. Check out this Forbes article. The labor participation rate is absolutely abysmal. That and the number of people on government assistance is staggering. Anyway, check out these stats comparing the respective inaugurations:
2nd this and JR Ewing's post as well. I don't understand why people insist on giving credit (or placing blame) on the president on many things he doesn't have all that much control over. And the major thing with the unemployment figures, as you mentioned, is they don't count people who've out of work for 2+ years and stopped looking for work. So the numbers being "calculated" are recent lay-offs and members still actively looking for jobs. Of course figures will look better if you skew data in that way. And the biggest thing we have yet to see is how big of an impact Obamacare is going to have on the economy. It purposefully didn't get put into action until after his 2nd term, but we're going to be seeing the effects of that legislation in a big way as the content of the bill goes into effect.
It is absurd to assert that the president has nothing to do with the economic performance of the country. And by the way in 2002 the Dow stood at 10,635 and by the time Bush left office it had climbed to 14,164 before collapsing to 12,000 at the start of the financial crisis (that's not nearly doubling). A collapse which you can certainly blame on the regulation free environment which the Bush administration promoted among U.S. banks and financial institutions. As for U.S. interest rates during the Bush years, they hovered between one and three percent (historically very low rates). If Mr. Obama's numbers were upside down would you then claim it was not his fault? The president of the United States, as Harry S. Truman said, is where the buck stops. He is entitled to blame when he screws things up, and he is entitled to the credit when he leads the team that fixes things. When President Obama came into office the country was in a total mess. A weaker leader and less intelligent person might have ridden us all straight to hell in a ready made hand basket. I guess a Harvard education is worth the money after all.
The same thing is happening in my region where people keep bashing our president. Being president must be one of the most stressful jobs. There are so many critical people who will judge everything. They will even comment about how he sips water when he makes a speech. What is the solution? Keep doing what you are doing president Obama.
These are just some indicators and no doubt a good job was done here, but of course the the Republicans will not say they love him because they want their job lol.