Our economy is struggling, to put it lightly, much as it was in 1992 when George H. W. Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton. My question is, how does the country’s current economical situation compare to that of similar months in 1992 (May, Jun, Jul)? I don’t quite remember how they compare but if I remember correctly, Bush lost the election largely because of the US’s poor economy.
I don’t want to compare Bush’s and Obama’s foreign relations, I only want to compare the state of the country’s economy between now and 20 years ago. (Gosh, has it really been 20 years?!)
I think the economy is worse now than it was in 1992, 7.7% unemployment in July 1992 vs 8.1% in 2012. But I don’t think this tells the full picture. When Bush took office the economy was pretty good, and then got worse over the course of his term. With Obama the Economy was free fall when he took office, and hit bottom just 9 months after Obama took office. Since then it has been making a slow but steady recovery. So Obama looks better than Bush in terms of the “are you better off than you were 4 years ago” metric.
Yeah I remember that and thanks for the reminder. The economy in 1988 was strong and then tanked during Bush’s 4 years, while Obama inherited one that was already in trouble. That’s the proper perspective.
For what it’s worth, I think comparisons to prior elections are fairly useless. GHWB didn’t have to deal with the 24 hour news cycle, for one thing (yes, I know CNN was around then).
I think people have reset expectations since then, too. A lot of people seem to have a “uh oh, this time it isn’t going to get back to normal” attitude. That helps Obama, because it shifts people’s attention somewhat away from the president. Not to mention that Romney is one of the worst campaigners, so it’s unclear what they’d be getting with him other than the same old Republican prescription of tax cuts, most of which will probably help the rich (aka, “Job Creators”).