Since the conservative Washington Times announced, “The honeymoon’s over,” the day before Obama took office, I suppose it only makes sense that the GOP’s 2012 game plan is to blame the president for a market slide that began its descent a full year before he came into power.
Is the president turning us into – “Quelle horreur!” – Europeans?
Let’s take a closer look at just how much of this is Obama’s faute. (That’s “fault,” for those of you still speaking English.)
We know Obama didn’t invent the housing bubble or the credit crisis, we know he didn’t oversee the massive deregulation, all leading to the first large bailout on that other guy’s watch. And we’re pretty sure that the collective global economic meltdown isn’t his fault either.
In fairness, Obama is still learning how to walk that wobbly line that forces him to both chastise big business while he solicits our support for the government aid that might save it.
Yet any inference that the market began to falter in anticipation of an Obama presidency is way off base.
That was mid-September – around the same time Lehman Brothers failed, WaMu was rescued and it literally looked like every bank in the country could go under. (I suppose the market rally the week before the election came because people suddenly decided McCain had it in the bag? Hardly.)
These are uncertain times. It’s an era when a Comedy Central comedian feels more credible to us than an MSNBC analyst, where the once mighty GOP now turns for direction and inspiration from Jonathan Krohn, a 14-year-old with a knack for public speaking.
No wonder political panic is rampant on the right. “Socialist” hasn’t had much traction. I can hardly blame them for throwing “European” against the market research wall, hoping the slur will stick.
Americans aren’t terrified of turning into Europeans; they’re rightly concerned about a deepening recession that impacts their lives on a daily basis.
They have no trouble remembering and cherishing our proud capitalist roots, but you know what else sticks in their mind?
That the perfect storm of events that brought us to this point has little to do with the leader we’re hoping will bring us to shore.
Andrea Sarvady (ASarvad@gmail.com) is a writer and educator specializing in counseling and a married mother of three.