Are Americans really stupid enough to give Bush credit for a

[Les BOOGIE]

recovery when he did nothing but let the recession and the jobless recovery run it's course?

I think the answer is yes; they seemed to buy the argument that Poppy was responsible for the Clinton boom >>> 12 years of Reagan Bush Voodoo Economics was just not quite enough time--it took twelve years and 2 months.

[Gunit_Sangh]

1. answer ..

Never, never, never misunderestimate the power of human stupidity!

[iamjoy]

2. I'd Like The Opinion of an Economist

I only took a few Economics Courses in College but it seems to me the economy moves in cycles and there is very little a president can do one way or the other to change that fact. He (not being sexist, the US is not enlightened enough for a female pres.) may, through policies, cause the expansion to be a little bigger, better, longer and the recession to be bigger, last longer. But he's never going to change the swinging back and forth. What he can do though to make the biggest impact is help soften the blow of the recession for those who doing the worst. He can also enact policies that help safe guard the long term economic health of our nation (the F.D.I.C. was referred to by ultra-Conservative Ben Stein as "the most wildly successful government program in the history of man"). Dubya chose not to safeguard our long term economic security, while making it harder on those who were most vulnerable, a Raw Deal instead of a New Deal.

[Erika]

3. Thanks For Your Post

Why isn't more made of the fact that wages of new jobs are down 17% and benefits reduced or eliminated? That has to have an extreme economic impact on our future in every way. Opinion?

[robbedvoter]

4. 90% gave him credit for allowing WTC to be destroyed! Rallied and

everything - smart liberals were repeating the mantra: "He grew in his job"

[coltman]

5. What recovery??? n/t

[BillZBubb]

6. In a word: YES!

If there is a noticable recovery by mid-September, Bush*s poll numbers will go up. Unfortunately, the public has a very short memory. Someone has termed us the United States of Amnesia--and I think that's pretty accurate.

I do disagree with your first sentence though. Bush* spent billions upon billions of borrowed dollars to temporarily pump up the economy. It's not that he did nothing, he just did the absolute WORST thing.

[TheWebHead]

7. had a lot to do with *'s war timing too

basically that 1-year runup allowed * to figuratively dunk the U.S. economy's head underwater and allowed for easy comparisons for GDP growth the following year, creating a deceptive short-term pent-up demand... but the downside was the equal growth in commodities demand where supply hasn't been able to keep up, leading to big-time commodity inflation.