Do you think the country is in good condition?
The majority probably think we have a lot of problems in this country?
The debate seems to be about the best way to fix these problems?
Do we continue the supply side formulas, with tax cuts and low rates, of the last 30 years or do we do something differently?
I think when this President came into office, most people thought we needed change. This included a lot of Republicans. But we did not get the change that most expected.
Many were surprised at the appointment of Timothy Geithner to oversee the transfer of wealth to the banks and to assure their survival over all else, including homeowners that lost their homes or much of the value in their homes.
Many were surprised that the war machine and Guantanamo were not shut down. In fact, the war in Afghanistan still continues and the Homeland Security Department has been made a permanent fixture of Americans lives.
No one was investigated, let alone convicted, for the alleged war crimes of torture and rendition. It was all swept under the rug.
Despite record unemployment for a long time, there was no government intervention except unemployment compensation. There were no government jobs created. In fact, many of the jobs lost were government jobs.
But we managed to escape another great depression, although almost all Americans lost wealth during the last 4 years. Those at the top were the exception. Those, like the big banks, made record profits. The stock market soared back to record highs.
So, in that regard, with our banks and stock market, the country is doing rather well. Everyone else has lost ground.
Many expected the Bush taxcuts to expire but the excuse to keep them was that it might drive the economy back into recession? How convenient. The deficits kept soaring and the Republicans kept attacking the President for running up the debt so high. Eventually the tax cuts were done away with on those making above $450K per year. It did very little to help the long term deficit by keeping the rest of the Bush tax cuts.
Then, many were surprised and outraged that the President recommended cutting the payroll taxes that went into the Social Security fund, as a means to continue to stimulate the economy. There was no evidence that it worked. It only gave the Republicans the opportunity to accuse the President of raising taxes once the payroll tax was re-instated.
All these efforts to get the economy going again were stymied at every turn by a recalcitrant Congress and a Senate that refused to give one inch of ground to this President.
At every turn, we have put into place Republican policies to fix our problems. They have not worked and the Democratic Party has not proposed a Democratic agenda to fix them. That is where we are today. Is the country in good shape? No. And we are now ready to enter our austerity period. This should be fun.
= new reply since forum marked as read
immeasurable though easily measured by the major quality-of-life ranking factors which depict America having fallen to the bottom or near the bottom in all ranking factors among industrialized nations. Anyone thinking this has not come about due to successive administrations implementing regressive right-wing tax and other policies just might be wrong. Unfortunately, first Clinton and now Obama, have helped push our nation a goodly bit farther to the right and its devastating impact is highlighted by all those quality-of-life ranking factors: when one's policies are designed for the benefit of the uber-wealthy, large corporations, and oligarchs to the detriment of all others, the results are a given. 
to DU. 
Enjoy your education.
you happen to be a ghoul, a vulture, or a vampire continuously searching for vulnerable prey to feast upon. 
Otherwise, not so much. 
