Just to make sure that everyone is still clear about this, here’s the current trajectory of politics and the American economy stripped down to its bare essentials:
2001-2008: Republicans run economy into ditch.
2008: Obama elected.
2009-2011: Republicans respond by doing everything possible to prevent him from fixing things.
2012: Republicans use lousy economy as campaign cudgel against Obama.
2012: Republican candidate wins presidency (maybe).
Sure, sure, Obama deserves some blame for not being aggressive enough etc. etc. I get it. But that’s a nit within the big picture. The basic story is the one above. It’s still kind of hard to believe.
We have a new comment system! We are now using Coral, from Vox Media, for comments on all new articles. We'd love your feedback.