I agree, economy will matter, but it depends upon how much 'improvement' people expect. I am glad we missed a depression, so I will vote for him again. If others require all jobs come back,, Im pretty sure they will be disappointed and might not vote for him. It all depends upon how realistic peoples expectations about the economy were coming in,,,,,

I'm not exactly sure what you think he did, but the federal reserve buying up toxic loans to clean banks balance sheets is what temporarily halted the downfall..

The Obama "stimulus" that was supposed to keep unemployment under 8% didn't work..

And just wait til his health care kicks into high gear after the 2012 election.

We are on a pace of 1 million foreclosures this year. How much more can the Fed buy to keep the banks from becoming insolvent?

How many foreclosed properties in a neighborhood does it take for everyones value to plummet?

If you think it's bad now, you ain't seen nothing yet..

Well, I could write paragraphs on this but basically it goes like this. The President does NOTHING by himself (barring vetos ). In reality, the position of President has the authority to propose ideas and then have those ideas decided by the SENATE. So, this president, nor any before him, have actually DONE anything besides make the proposals,, and the rest of the government has either followed through or dismissed those ideas. BUT, in this hypersensitive culture, we commonly look for a sole scapegoat to anything that doesnt go our way. So, in response to those who would BLAME a President for the state of the country, I very generically give CREDIT to the President for the state of the country.

ITs in better shape than when he found it. Being intellectually honest, this has happened under his leadership, but not UNIQUELY or SOLELY because of him. That is the standard, I will be using. I do not have some SET degree of improvement , just that it has improved instead of worsened. IF he leaves and things are BETTER than they were in December 2008, I will vote for him again. It will be an easy decision unless some other candidate comes forward with BETTER ideas and a BETTER personal history.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ... ! What a reality disconnect ... 'intellectually honest' ... ? Seriously ... ? WHAT's in 'better shape' now than before he took over with his wrecking crew? NOTHING. If you think he's hot stuff now, just wait 'til 01 Jan 2011 when the BUSH TAX CUTS expire because HE wouldn't authorize making 'em permanent. Say 'automatic tax increase'. You just THINK taxes are high now - wait 'til you check your pay stub in '11 ... the fun's just starting. The man's a malignant narcissist whose ONLY intent is to to cut this country down to what HE perceives as its 'proper' place in the world. Zimbabwe Pt II, here we come ... btw, that part about the president doing nothing by himself ... Ever hear of 'Presidential Decision Directives' (PDD) or 'Executive Orders' (EO) ... ?

whats in better shape?,, as I stated, the economy

november of 2008 saw 500,000 more jobs lost,, compared to June of 2010 when it is at 133,000.... that is an improvement, a move forward , a climb further up the mountain,,,,being intellectually honest and not 'disconnected' at all

I think as the economy improves, it will be slow, those who do not have ulterior motives for not liking him will be glad to vote for him again.

Plus even though I am not happy with the health care reform, he did what no president before him could do.

And financial reform.

Closing Gitmo

MOST OF ALL, EVEN THOUGH I REALLY HATE IT, HE COMPROMISES WITH "THE OTHER SIDE".

They would not do the same if it were reversed.

First of all... he isn't an economist.. So you are correct that the policy doesn't actually come from him. He has advisers that believe spending inordinate amounts of money will save us all from catastrophe. The fact is, had his advisers paid attention to historical trends they would have realized that spending your way out of a recession that was caused by over spending isn't really an appropriate response. Had they not spent us into oblivion and wasted an entire year on health care maybe we would be better off already than in 2008. But we aren't. And he is in charge.

If we do not fall into a depression then what Obama did worked because that is what they were trying to stop from happening.

It takes up to ten years to recover from a recession or maybe more so the experts were not saying recession wouldn't be happening or stay around.

I mentioned in an earlier post that the Federal Reserve Bank bought billions in toxic loans from banks. That is what stopped the freefall we were in. Obama did nothing, but finance state governments that were spending too much and couldn't balance their budgets.

The 2 are not equal in significance other than they both exacerbated the problems we are going to face down the road..

By the way, Bush inherited a recession from Clinton thanks to the dotcom market bust. You know those awful "Bush" taxcuts... We weren't in a recession for 10 years so your theory needs to be adjusted..

we ARE better off than 2008, refer to the previous posts...

Not my theory, economists said that it should take about 10 years to see our way out of the recession.

We are better off than in 2008, that is correct.

Using WHICH metrics to measure said 'better off than' ... ?

exactly, using what metrics,, mine will be different than those with the opinion that things are worse because numbers can be manipulated to support all types of views

I posted my metric already,, compared to the month of november in 2008(when obama won the election)

during that month 533,000 jobs were lost

this month 133,000 jobs were lost


that is improving,,,

Increasing the debt by 3 trillion isn't improving anything. It's creating another bubble that is going to burst when they can't sell bonds or print money without creating massive inflation.

your opinion, if I am working and able to support my family, I dont really think about the governments debt so much,,,,I realize its importance, but I dont so much cast my vote on assumptions of what will happen in the future as much as I do by evidence of what is happening in the present compared to the past

Regarding Key 2:
Is there anyone that can/will run against him who actually might have a chance? Enlighten me, I haven`t been up to date. I really think that McCain threw the race when he chose Palin to be his running mate,,,,I think he may have known that even if he won, he wouldn`t win (because the state of things).....just my opinion.