Well the economy looks like its on the road to recovery, so obviously Bush and Obama didn't botch things that badly. People were frantic that we were on the verge of the Great Depression and now they are looking forward to recovery. I compliment Bush on not sitting around and twiddling his thumbs like Herbert Hoover. This was not your run-of-the-mill recession.
You are also not taking into account the subjective factor in the markets. The government taking action in the markets sends a psychological message to consumers and investors. Even if the action itself has no actual effect, the psychological impact it can have on consumers and investors can nevertheless be extremely positive.
Economics is not an exact science. You can point at charts and pie graphs all day, but the reality of the economy is too complex to simply quantify as "If you do Action X, you will get Result Y." Simply because you read in a textbook that governments shouldn't intervene in the market at all does not mean that in reality that is the most effective method.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
