Hey, when you're preoccupied with campaigning, hob-nobbing with the Hollywood gliteratti, peddling endless policy and personal distractions, and living it up with lavish vacations and parties, it's easy to lose track of how the ailing economy continues to pummel families and businesses:
"Sometimes people forget the magnitude of it...sometimes I forget."
That's not what he really meant, of course. He was clumsily trying to explain that it's easy to forget how rotten everything was when he took over. In other words, this was a poorly-constructed Blame Bush gambit. Nevertheless, the problem for this president is that he actively sought this job, winning on a pledge that his policies would turn the country around. He said himself that unless he accomplished this task within his first three years, he'd face a "one term proposition." Today, unemployment remains above 8 percent, real unemployment is close to 15 percent, the workforce participation rate is at a 30-year ebb, median income is falling, poverty is increasing, our national debt is dizzying, and GDP growth is anemic. In truth, what Obama actually hopes is that he can muddy the waters just enough to cause most Americans to "forget" about the economy over which he's presiding.
