The Obama Benchmarks

Hugh Hewitt posted a piece recently setting forth the economic benchmarks by which the Obama administration should be judged. Specifically, Hugh lays out various economic statistics as of November 5, 2008, and suggests that in the fall of 2012, the state of these stats should be the basis on which the incoming administration - at least as to economic policy - should be judged.

At first blush, I felt this was unfair and unrealistic. After all, as of today, in fact until more than six weeks from today, Barry O possesses ZERO executive authority. We only have one President at a time, don't ya know. Moreover, drawing accurate conclusions concerning the effects of any President's economic policies is a tricky enough business, due to time lags and myriad external factors, both foreseeable and not, without further muddying the waters with arbitrary judgment days.

I've changed my mind. There is much the Obamalama could be doing now to calm our extremely nervous markets, but isn't, notwithstanding some appointments which are, quite honestly, as good as any conservative could have hoped for. In view of his seedy, far-left background, all the talk on Capitol Hill of a new New Deal, and Rahm Emmanuel's reference to the financial crisis as an opportunity (to "fundamentally change the country"?), I think it's fair to assume, until proven otherwise, that the magical O may not be too terribly disturbed by financial chaos and a deteriorating general economy. Further, I think the markets know this, just as well as they know that our Congress is controlled by a clamorous claque of clowns. Remember, "this is politics".