Posted by swamphawk22 on 5/22/2012 12:40:00 PM (view original):
Everyone knows the collapse happened before Obama took office.
Does that mean there can be no logical review of Obama's policies and how they have impacted the recovery?
No, we should absolutely examine Obama's record and hold him accountable. But we need to make sure that we do so with context.
Looking back at the collapse, knowing now that it was far worse than we thought at the time, what should we expect the recovery to look like? What could the president have done differently? Would it have been possible for him to enact the most beneficial policies? Or would that have been impossible because of the gridlock in congress?
I think the stimulus was the right move because of what was causing the recession. Could it have been more effective? Sure. But the alternative, according to the republican point of view, wasn't a more effective stimulus, but a nonexistent one.