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• Thursday, January 8, 2009 06:07 AM

  Salon lies again

  "President Bush inherited a peaceful, prosperous America."

  Salon ignores the fact that al Qaeda had declared war on the U.S., and had bombed two U.S. embassies in August 1998 and the USS Cole just three months before Bush became president. In addition, during the exact same months that Clinton launched a preemptive attack on Iraq and a "technically illegal" war of choice on Kosovo, the 9/11 Commission reports that al Qaeda planned 9/11.

  As far as a "prosperous America," the dotcom bubble of March 2000 eventually led to the recession that became in March 2001. In other words, Bush inherited the Clinton-Gore recession.

  Therefore, it is a blatant lie to say Bush inherited "a peaceful, prosperous America."

  Since Barack Obama became president-elect, many in the mainstream media have claimed he will inherit the greatest economic crisis since FDR.

  Interestingly, many in the media made similar claims before Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. For example, according to the January 19, 1981 issue of Newsweek, “When Ronald Reagan steps into the White House next week, he will inherit the most dangerous economic crisis since Franklin Roosevelt took office 48 years ago.”

  Is Obama really facing an economic crisis greater than Reagan faced 28 years ago?

  The misery index (the sum of the inflation rate and the unemployment rate) was 21.98 in June 1980. It was down to 10.07 when Reagan left office in January 1988. The misery index was 7.77 in November 2008.

  Given that the misery index was nearly three times as high when Reagan became president than it is today, it appears the claim that Obama will inherit the greatest economic crisis since FDR is quite an exaggeration.

  Source: http://www.miseryindex.us/raw_data.asp

  —Groenhagen Read Groenhagen's other letters
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