It's all sounding too familiar: once again, President Obama was asked to grade himself on his handling of the economy, and once again, he says...incomplete. Speaking to a local news affiliate in Colorado Springs, CO the Chief Executive declined to give himself a letter A-F, but said he's "invested in" a number of measures that will "help us in the long term." Really:
Say, haven't we heard that before?
Why, yes we have! As Andrew Kaczynski at Buzzfeed points out, he gave himself the same assessment in August 2010 and October 2011.
Hey, I'll let the August incomplete slide -- he'd only been in office for a year and a half, not quite enough time to see if his policies were sticking. That's fair. But now, at the end of his first term, since it's not better and he can't give himself an A without seeming totally out of touch, he just won't give himself anything at all. His efforts at "recovery" have prompted sluggish growth (or none at all, depending on whom you ask), and his unwillingness to entertain any ideas besides his own hardly speaks to his ability to unite the country, either (unless you count all of Congress uniting to unanimously reject his budget proposals two years running -- bipartisanship!).
Besides that, which of his pet projects are actually helping the economy? Solyndra? The artificial student loan interest rates that actually drive up the cost of college tuition? Bueller?
If, after four years, he can't give an honest, straight answer about how far we've come and where we're going, then why should we risk four more years of an "incomplete" economy?