How is Obama Doing?

How is Obama doing in your opinion? President Obama came in on a ground swell of popularity that is an undisputable fact. He also came into office during a time that would try a man’s soul.  The stock market was tanking, 401ks suffered a mortal blow, the mortgage crisis was a root cause, the fall of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns was unthinkable. George Bush was under a constant barrage of attack.  

In October when the market was 10,000 Jim Cramer, of Mad Money fame called for those who needed their money within 5 years to sell and sell it all and fast.  Unfortunately, few people heeded Cramer’s advice, as they had bought into the buy and hold strategies of the brokerage firms.  Looking back that was a strategy that benefited the brokerage firms the most. The unemployment was 6.2% at its worst during the Bush administration.  The housing crisis and, recession consumed the print and web media during that time. George Bush was pushed into the first of the TARP bailouts. There was little strategy   to have faith in.  Chrysler and GM were faltering and badly.  The inaugural took on the tone of a second coming. People suggesting this earthy messiah was going to solve these problems with the wave of his hand.  

 To his credit Obama wanted to move quickly. And that he did, some not well though out, like Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo).  He sold a series of trillion dollar budget busting initiatives, Some legislation made sense, other legislation seem to have no measurement system to be used to quantify progress.  During this time unemployment has reached 9.3%, with estimates as high as 15 %-18% if you count those that have just given up or accepted part-time work as their only option. The country has lost 1.8 million jobs since Obama was elected. Granted he has initiated  a job program to employee 18 – 24 year olds who qualify for 7 weeks of public service work this summer. Unfortunately, Obama and his VP Joe Biden can not really account   for any specifics in terms of job creation.  V. P.  Joe Biden said, “We knew from the outset a lot of the money in this stimulus package would be wasted.”   A gaff, that the main stream media has not really jumped emphasized People speak of inflation, interest rises, and taxes that will be a burden for as long as 2- 3 generations.    Many States are in real economic trouble and the towns even worse as the revenues will   not flow down stream. Many speak of health care initiatives and   government run businesses like GM, not to mention bailouts that look like socialism. So I ask you are you better off mid June 2009 than you were June 2008?