Obama A Bad Economic President? Consider It "Proved" (A response to Jonathan Alter's challenge)

Forbes ^ | 09/01/2011 | Louis Woodhill

[SeekAndFind]

In a Bloomberg opinion piece published Aug. 25, Jonathan Alter asked for “proof” that Barack Obama has been a bad president, specifically with regard to his handling of the economy. OK, Jonathan, here’s your proof.

Executives are judged by results. In terms of the economic results produced during the first 2.5 years of his first term, Obama is the worst president of the past 60 years. Given that Alter himself would likely agree that there have been some bad presidents during the past 60 years, this makes Obama a bad president.

Ten presidents have been elected since 1952: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama. Let’s look at how each of them stacked up against the following five important measures of economic performance:

1. The average real GDP growth rate during the first 10 calendar quarters of his first term

2. The percentage point change in the CPI inflation rate between the December prior to his inauguration and July of the third year of his first term

3. The percent change in the “Real Dow” (the Dow Jones Industrial Average divided by the price of gold in dollars per ounce) between the December prior to his inauguration and July of the third year of his first term

4. The percentage point change in the unemployment rate between the December prior to his inauguration and July of the third year of his first term

5. The percent change in total employment (BLS Household Survey) between the December prior to his inauguration and July of the third year of his first term.

[Gay State Conservative]

9.5% unemployment....the dollar worth about as much as the paper it's printed on....I'd call that proof.

[SeekAndFind]

FROM THE ARTICLE:

If we rank the ten presidents listed above in numeric order in each of these categories based upon the results they produced, and then calculate the average of their five individual scores, we get the following overall presidential rankings, from best (1) to worst (10):

1. Clinton
2. Johnson
3. Eisenhower
4. Kennedy
5. Carter
6. Reagan
7. Bush 41
8. Nixon
9. Bush 43
10. Obama

It may be surprising to see Jimmy Carter ranked ahead of Ronald Reagan. Remember, however, that the comparison is only between the economic results achieved during their first 2.5 years in office. As it happened, the economy went downhill fast during Carter’s final 1.5 years in office, while the last 18 months of Reagan’s first term was marked by rapid GDP growth and job creation.

[Graewoulf]

Hey, Jonathan! Just a couple of things in addition to the above 5 items:

1.) Open your eyes.
2.) Prove to us tax-payers that the USA is not in the death spiral of “downfall.”

Oops, sorry. since you are a member of the L.I.E. Media - - -.
L.I.E. is short for Liberal Intelligentsia Elite, you knew that! You were just testing me!
Anyway, being a member of the L.I.E Media you probably have never heard of the number one economics rule which is as follows: WHEN YOUR OUTGO EXCEEDS YOUR INCOME, YOUR UPKEEP WILL BE YOUR DOWNFALL.

Okay, Jonathan you are on. Convince us with YOUR proof!