Oh, No

In politics, as in sports, it's called an "unforced error."

Unforced error, meet President Barack Obama. For George Stephanopoulos of ABC News didn't even inquire whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago. Rather, he asked

There are so many people who simply don't think they're better off than they were four years ago. How do you convince them that they are?

President Obama thus was given the opportunity to argue that George W. Bush deserved to be held responsible for a large share of the economic debacle (as polls indicate most Americans believe) or to cite the measures he has taken to turn the economy around. Instead, he decided to remind voters of what they already knew, admitting

Well, I don't think they're better off than they were four years ago. They're not better off than they were before Lehman collapsed, before the financial crisis, before this extraordinary recession that we're going through.

He continued with his answer, but by then the damage was done. If this is Barack Obama's effort to appear to "feel your pain," Bill Clinton-style, it fell way off the mark. Sure, most people were better off before Lehman collapsed than they are now but the truth can be acknowledged in a more tactful and artful way, perhaps by noting that the country would have been better served if the Republicans had worked with him to create jobs. Even avoiding the question would have been preferable to a statement which will be quoted in GOP debates, speeches, and ads, sometimes accompanied by the assertion "even President Obama admits he has failed."

Ronald(6) Wilson(6) Reagan(6) captured the presidency from Jimmy Carter by asking "are you better off today than you were four years ago?" Barack Obama should have left it to Republicans to ask that question themselves, rather than answering it for them.

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