http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5Egspc+interactive#symbol=^gspc;range=20010101,20120828;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;
To put the two administrations juxtaposition start on 1/1/2001 and then draw a line on 1/1/2009
1/1/2001 SP 500 1345
1/1/2009 SP 500 832 a decline of 514 points or 38% over 8 years.
8/28/2012 SP 500 1409 an increase of 577 or 69% over 3 1/2 years
But that only tells part of the story. The other part of the story is how do the two administrations compare vis a vis others in the same category.
Remember the old joke about two guys, one a fitness nut and the other an over weight smoker walking in the woods? They make a turn around a hill and find themselves face to face with a mother bear and her cubs. They turn and start running like hell. The fit one starts to laugh. The fat guy, already starting to drop behind says, "what are you laughing about, you cannot out run a bear?". The other guy turns and yells "Idon't have to out run a bear, just you".
If you use this graph and input the appropriate numbers you can see how the US Dollar steadily declined during Bush and is now steadily increasing under Obama.
http://www.oanda.com/currency/historical-rates/
That means that Bush didn't just tank the economy, he couldn't keep up with other similar economies at the same time. Under Obama the US has not only rebounded but it is pulling the rest of the world up. What would it look like if Obama had a healthy economy in the rest of the world so that there would be increasing European consumer demand, instead of a sharply declining Eurpean economy.
After showing a bunch of definitive graphs I usually quietly say, "this isn't an election, its an intelligence test for the country".
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