Mitt Romney keeps saying that President Obama can't run on his record.
That's ridiculous.
Obama's record, at least with respect to the economy, has been strong--especially relative to the economy of the prior adminstration (whose policies Romney wants to return to).
Before Obama took office, you will recall, the economy was in freefall, obliterated by tax cuts, runaway government spending, massive consumer debts, and regulation-be-damned culture of the prior administration.
As the attached charts show, the moment Obama arrived and implemented the stimulus, the economy began to improve. And it has gotten much, much better in the past four years.
Yes, it's true that economic growth has not been stellar and that unemployment is much too high. That's why we keep publishing "the chart that might get Obama fired," which shows the unemployment rate relative to his administration's early projections. But relative to the economy that Obama inherited, one that featured temporary debt-fueled "sugar-high" growth that ended in catastrophe, Obama's economic record has been good.
This summer, Mike Norman, Chief Economist of John Thomas Financial, built a chartbook that shows 21 major market and economic indicators before and after President Obama was elected.
Obama rolled out his stimulus just after taking office. And as these charts clearly show, it worked.
We still have a long way to go to fix the problems that have developed in the economy over the past 30 years--namely, massive debt overhangs, extreme inequality, high unemployment, lousy schools, idiotic immigration policies, and so forth. But we're certainly better off than we were four years ago.
NOTE: Thanks to Mike Norman for allowing us to feature his chartbook.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider