Obama and the Right-Wing "Bull" Market
Among the rarely acknowledged truths of American politics is that the U.S. economy in general and the stock market in particular almost always do better under Democratic presidents. Of course, that oversight is no accident, but instead the predictable result of successful mythmaking by the Party of Hoover and its media allies. And so it was this week as the Dow cracked the 10,000 barrier; the same conservative commentariat who blamed Barack Obama for the market's free fall as early as the summer of 2008 are now silent on its rebound under his watch.
Leading Wednesday's revisionist history was Neil Cavuto of the Fox Business channel, who asked, "Is this now the 'Bush Recovery?'" But the right-wing campaign to lay the Bush Recession did not start with Sean Hannity's March 2009 proclamation that "Obama, since he's elected, has tanked the markets/"
The first shot came in August 2008, even before the September Wall Street meltdown that defined George W. Bush's economic legacy and effectively ended John McCain's chances to win the White House. CNBC host and former Reagan advisor Larry Kudlow blamed a 242-point drop in the Dow on the Democratic Convention. Kudlow, who that April compared the deepening recession to an enema (calling it "an economic cleansing" and crowing that "recessions are therapeutic") concluded:
"Are the Denver Dems downing the stock market today? The Dow is off 230 points, starting right from the get-go. So-called market analysts are blaming financials and the credit crunch as they always do. But there's more.
Obama and Biden gave us plenty of class warfare in their Springfield, Ill., get together on Saturday. Tax the rich. Redistribute income and wealth. Go after all those corporate meanies. Trade protection...
...With the Denver Dems strutting their stuff, this could be a bumpy week for stocks. Did anyone say free-market capitalism is the best path to prosperity?"
With Obama's election on November 4th, that warning shot turned into a barrage. Within 48 hours, the mullahs of right-wingistan didn't merely blame Obama for two days of market declines; they traveled back in time to lay the entire Bush recession at his feet.
Echoing CNBC's Kudlow, Dick Morris claimed the markets will "continue to tank...not just because he's a radical, not just because he's a Democrat, but because he's going to raise the capital gains tax. While Fox News' Gretchen Carlson announced, "there's a lot of feeling in the market not reacting very well to the election of Barack Obama," Fred Barnes proclaimed, "There is great uncertainty out there about [Obama's] policies." And that Thursday, the always execrable Rush Limbaugh laid it all at Obama's feet:
"The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen. Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression. He hasn't done anything yet but his ideas are killing the economy. His ideas are killing Wall Street...
...The market's down today because of the jobless numbers. That's how the Drive-Bys see it. Uhhhhh, we have the largest market plunge after an election in history. Thank you, man-child Barack Obama."
As the Dow Jones continued its slide below 7000 in March, the conservative catcalls become a chorus. CNN's Lou Dobbs, the self-proclaimed "Mr. Independent," announced on March 9, 2009, "This is now the Obama bear market." That same day, the Wall Street Journal declared, "The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem." House Minority Leader John Boehner was among the Republican leaders bemoaning "the Obama economy" and insisted that since Obama's inauguration six weeks earlier, "Certainly the stock market hasn't acted very well." Later that month, the Journal's Daniel Henninger blasted Obama's "radical presidency":
"A Democratic Party that was always anti-Wall Street is becoming anti- Main Street."
Sadly for Henninger, the record shows that from GDP growth and job creation to managing the national debt and producing gains for investors, it is the Democratic Party which is the friend of Wall Street and Main Street alike. (For the data and charts documenting Democrats' superior economic stewardship since Hoover, see "Democrats: Saving American Capitalism Since 1933" and "Bush Latest GOPer to Show Democrats Better for the Economy.")
Still, the rally on Wall Street should not be confused with clean bill of health for the economy. While the Obama stimulus package is already paying dividends in reversing the steep declines in GDP, output which forecasters see rising by 3% or more by year-end, the pain and hardship of the Bush recession remains profound. Unemployment is hovering near 10%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that total weekly pay for production workers - 80% of the U.S. work force - dropped for a record ninth straight month. Meanwhile, home foreclosures in the third quarter jumped a staggering 23% from a year ago.
That said, under President Obama the U.S. economy is now headed in the right direction. As for his frothing at the mouth foes, they remain bearish on the Obama bull market.
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When rationalizing economic phenomena, the right-wingistani pundits would fare much better by using phrenology in place of their prejudicially ruptured brilliance. Short term stock market fluctuations are as fickle as fourteen year-olds in love, and as capricious as Texas weather. On the other hand, Limbaugh, Hannity, Boehner and friends are constant ... sort of like the drips of Chinese water torture.
Posted by Cue on October 15, 2009 3:49 PMWhat does Neil so-called "Cavuto" HATE America? He HATES America! He wants America to FAIL! He wants us to LOSE BOTH WARS!
Posted by John on October 16, 2009 4:11 PM