What was your opinion of the economy when President Obama took office?

[kentuck]

24. I think a lot of people under-estimated the gravity of the situation...

I think the Administration was in denial when they thought the unemployment rate would not go above 8%. Either that, or they did not want to panic the public? I tend to think it is the former.

The economy was teetering on the edge and I thought the Administration totally underestimated the seriousness of the problem. Still, I believe it could have been much worse, especially for the banks and Wall Street. Instead of letting them suffer the pain, it seems to me that the Administration chose to let the people suffer the consequences of their bad decisions and we are still suffering those consequences. However, how bad would it have been if the banks and Wall Street had been left to pay for bad decisions? Where would the 401K's be today? Would the economy have been worse or better than at present? What would the unemployment rate be today? No one knows. We can only guess.

I do believe that President Obama and the Democrats had a mandate to make whatever changes they deemed necessary to save our economy in 2009 but, after several months of bickering and with the stock market regaining its footing, the Democrats lost that mandate. The Republicans eventually regained the momentum and decided to blame everything on Obama and the Democrats and were able to soundly defeat the Democrats in the election of 2010. I do believe history will record it as an opportunity squandered.

So now, here we are on the edge of returning to the same policies that put us in the dire straits of 2008 and the Democrats are hoping and praying that the people come to their senses and not vote the Republicans back into power. The Democrats had a chance to change the game and save this country from further decline but they punted. They failed the American people, in my humble opinion.