Difference of ideas and results: Obama & Romney

Hopefully you've seen the nice graph presented on The Rachel Maddow Show over the last 2 years. It was given the cutie name Bikini Graph. It showed the ever growing unemployment in the United States under President Bush, and how, as President Obama began his stimulus programs, things began to reverse. It is illuminating.

And as we go into this election it is informative on what we have to decide on now.

Today, on the road, trailing Obama, Mitt Romney has continued his claim that President Obama has not acted to grow jobs across the country. It is trying to bolster a sense that the president isn't doing the job and can't do the job. (That is an undercurrent to Romney's remarks that I see, the idea that Obama just can't handle being president. Question is, does he say that to try and not sound hostile, or to imply something of Obama's capacities.)

But what is Romney going to do different? What we see so far is that he continues to welcome the old friends, allies, and advisers of President Bush. He's a man of a like background to Bush, and of a like education. There are no signs of a new approach, just more of the same from the last decade. So what George Bush helped usher in is instructive on what likely Romney can offer. 

Political Carnival has taken the Bikini Graph and extended it to now. This nicely reminds us how far President Obama has ushered us in four years.

From  http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/tag/bikini-graph/ and modified by me.

I did a little, unnecessary, modifying. The side marked A is the period of Bush style policy. The side marked B is the period of Obama style policy.

When Romney says Obama is not doing enough, it is false. It is taking time, and conservatives are working quite hard to stifle progress, but things are moving forward. In turn, the policies we are likely to see under Romney, the Bush style ones, show promise no boost to employment. Remember, many industry saw record profits under Bush, it was a good time for CEO's. For the rest of us...it was shit.

And that's what Romney is liable to drop us in again.