Thus, Obama's presidency is a failed one, as even Jimmy Carter acknowledges.

Tweet

According to conventional wisdom and conformist punditry, the past month has been a good one for Barack Obama. 

Of course, even assuming that to be true for purposes of argument, it's only good relative to the low expectations created by six years of his presidency.  Even Jimmy Carter, the most notoriously inept president of our lifetimes, couldn't identify in a recent interview a single place where America stands stronger and more respected today than when Obama took office: 

"On the world stage, just to be as objective about it as I can, I can't think of many nations in the world where we have a better relationship now than we did when he took over.  If you look at Russia, if you look at England, if you look at China, if you look at Egypt and so forth, I'm not saying it's his fault, but we have not improved our relationship with individual countries and I would say that the United States influence and prestige and respect in the world is probably lower now than it was six or seven years ago." 

Damning stuff, that.  In fairness to Obama, however, perhaps that's actually not entirely accurate.  Specifically, the dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and North Korea probably prefer him to his predecessor. 

Meanwhile, in other measures of Obama's performance, America continues to struggle through the worst post-recession recovery on record, one that hardly justifies the term "recovery" at all.  Median U.S. income is lower today than it was six years ago in June 2009, when the last recession ended.  That is unprecedented.  During that same stretch we witnessed several consecutive deficits in excess of $1 trillion, when the record deficit prior to Obama's presidency was less than half that amount at $450 billion.  

To further illustrate the depth of Obama's economic mismanagement, consider the monthly employment report released last week that some celebrated as part of his "good week."  While Obama and others falsely trumpeted a headline number of 223,000 new jobs, they ignored that nearly twice as many - 432,000 people - dropped out of the American workforce.  As a result, today's labor participation rate now stands at 62.6%, the lowest level since 1977 when women hadn't yet fully entered the U.S. workforce. 

Obama apologists and some pundits nevertheless consider this a halcyon stretch of his administration.  One basis for such claims is the recent passage of "fast track" trade promotion authority in Congress.  But that was an accomplishment attributable to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R - Kentucky) and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R - Ohio).  Democrats in Congress actually humiliated Obama by disrupting the legislation before Republicans saved the day in the name of economic growth and free trade.  In other words, the legislation occurred despite Obama, not because of him. 

Similarly, Obama and his supporters plagiarized credit for the recent Supreme Court decisions on ObamaCare subsidies and same-sex marriage.  Regardless of one's substantive position on the merits of those cases, it's bizarre to count either one as some sort of accomplishment on the part of Obama.  In the ObamaCare case, the pivotal votes were provided by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, who were appointed by Presidents Bush and Reagan respectively.  Besides, since when is it a measure of presidential achievement that his signature bill surprisingly and barely managed to withstand Supreme Court scrutiny?  And on the 5-4 decision regarding same-sex marriage, Justice Kennedy was again the deciding vote.  It must also be emphasized that until just recently, Obama himself professed opposition to same-sex marriage.  Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a man obviously demonized by Obama loyalists, stated unequivocal support for same-sex marriage several years before Obama felt politically safe enough to do so. 

Additionally, consider Obama's continuing unpopularity among the American electorate.  Even today, after all of the recent "achievements" for which he and his apologists claim false credit, his RealClearPolitics composite popularity/unpopularity index of all major public opinion surveys remains underwater in the 43% approval/49% disapproval range.  That has been the case for almost the entirety of Obama's presidency, as his unpopularity has consistently exceeded his popularity. 

By way of further illustration, after eight years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, the American public broadly shared his belief that government is more often the cause of our problems than the solution to our problems.  Obama, in contrast, has only witnessed the federal government that he has done so much to expand fall to record lows of public esteem during his tenure. 

Thus, Obama's presidency is a failed one, as even Jimmy Carter acknowledges.  It may therefore be understandable that he'd claim false credit for events for which he was not responsible, but it doesn't make those claims true.