In my case the answer is yes.
Will Clint Eastwood be there talking about halftime in America?
Looking macroscopically, I would answer yes, too.
The Dow was about 8800 the week Obama took office. It's over 13000 now. Certainly the economy is better off today than it was four years ago.
The unemployment rate has not fared so well, though. Depending on whose numbers you look at, the rate has remained about the same from the day Obama took office until today: 7.8% to 8.3% (although there have been fluctuations in the interim...it actually went to 10% and has been slowly coming back down.) When Bush took office in 2001, the rate was 4.2%.
So, it appears that the moneyed Wall Street interests are faring quite well today vs. four years ago. The 99%, not so good. Is it really Obama's fault, or that of the electorate of 2010? With a do-nothing Congress, publicly disclosing that they are hell-bent on keeping Obama to a single term, it's no wonder there has been no progress since the 2010 elections.
Harry Truman faced a similar situation, and successfully redeemed himself by constantly attacking and accusing Congress for the misfortunes happening during his presidency. "Dewey Defeats Truman" was the embarrassing headline of the over-confident Republicans. The American voters were actually paying attention then, as they do now.
The election will be won by the independent, middle-of-the-road voters. Those unemployment numbers probably represent mostly lower and lower-middle class workers who still know exactly which side of their bread has the butter.
Romney has NOTHING to attract those voters; Ryan can only do so with supreme lies and legerdemain. Only lies and subterfuge can get this election tilted in favor of Romney/Ryan. But, that is how Republicans always seem to win with the help of purchased media transmitting those lies day in and day out.
If Romney gets elected, his tanking of the economy will make 2008 and 1929 look like a birthday party. The agenda of the "new" Republican party is the economic enslavement of the lower and middle classes. That is, until they successfully eliminate the middle class.
