JOE KERNEN: I’m talking about January of ’09. The president came in, the unemployment wsa 7.8. If we don’t get down to 7.8 by the next election, his entire presidency is going to have an employment rate above where he took office. I know you said it went from losing 750 to gaining 170, but that’s going to be hard to hide from—that the entire presidency was about 8 percent for four years.
DAVID GOODFRIEND: Doug here has mentioned polling. When people are asked whose fault is it, they point directly at the Republicans and George W. Bush. I don’t believe Barack Obama inherits the political baggage of the bad economy that he inherited, that is not the case. Second of all, you mentioned a labor force participation rate. If you were to keep labor participation level you would have bad figures from the previous administration. If you look at the decrease in labor force participation, you are about to achieve parity. If you look at what the president has done in terms of adding jobs, Doug is absolutely right, presidents get more blame and more credit than they should. But it’s an election. Let’s assume the president gets all the blame and all the credit. The president has added more jobs in his first term than George Bush added in his entire eight years. So as employment goes, this president wins. As trend lines go, this president wins. It looks to me, if we’re going to carp about deficits and deficit spending and debt, the president--
KERNEN: David, so good to see you. Doug and David, great talking to you.
GOODFRIEND: Doug doesn’t know what to do.
KERNEN: I’m sure he’s got an answer for that.
DOUGLAS HOTLZ-EAKIN: On net, he’s going to lose employment over his first four years unless he gets another 750,000 jobs. It’s hard to read that as a success. There is no president that’s run up more debt.
KERNEN: Sooner or later at some time it becomes non-Bush.
MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA: The president should do what David said: Ask yourself if you’re better off than you were four years ago. Thanks, guys.