Our memories fade rather quickly. Less than two years ago, President George W. Bush boasted a job approval rating in the 20s and had one foot out the Oval Office door waiting for retirement. With just a few months remaining in his presidency, the financial markets and our economy collapsed, leading to double-digit unemployment numbers (and inadvertently to this blog).Yet, a group of small business owners in Wyoming, Minn., paid for a billboard along Interstate 35 with the same message as the photo above. Of course, they had to use a snide photo of No. 43 waving to us with a sly grin.
But what exactly do they miss? Do they miss the disastrous decision to invade Iraq? Do they miss the illegal warrantless wiretaps on American citizens? Do they miss the abuse of foreign prisoners that tramples on everything we believe in as a people? Do they miss the stock market when it hovered at 6,000 points?
Sure, people will argue these issues and the reasons why they occurred, but how can even the most hardened conservative honestly say that the 2000s were positive and productive? When Bush left office in January 2009, unemployment figures stood at 7.6 percent (and reached a high of 10.2 percent under President Obama last October). A budget surplus near the end of the Clinton Adminstration turned into a towering deficit under Bush.
Obama obviously has not exceeded expectations during his first 13 months in office, although he does currently have a 51 percent job approval rating. He clearly has a lot more work to do and needs to start getting Republicans on board if he wants to get this country out of the ditch.
But coming from someone who does not have a job and does not have health insurance, I certainly do not miss W. holding down the fort in The White House.
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