We’re in the aftermath of a financial crisis — and there’s overwhelming evidence (pdf) that recovery from financial crises is almost always protracted and difficult. There’s no way one should have expected everything to be fine until the Lehman failure lies years in the past. In fact, the return of job growth we’ve already seen is ahead of schedule compared with the historical average.
And one thing is clear: the financial crisis occurred on Bush’s watch. To demand that everyone let Bush off the hook for where we are now because 16 months have passed under his successor is to defy the overwhelming evidence of history.
I wish we saw more like this. I'm usually amazed and angered when I hear the (predictable) Republican jabs at the Obama administration. Seems to me the Republicans took eight years to run the economy into the ground. The new administration is expected to turn it around on a dime?