YES WE ARE!

In the wake of a disastrous Republican National Convention, which provided no significant "bounce" in the polls for them, produced no specific policy details whatsoever, demonstrated unequivocally the utter mendacity of Paul Ryan and the vacuousness of Mitt Romney, and the highlight of which was the surrealist fantasia of a doddering octogenarian actor (where have we seen THAT before??), the Romney campaign has become so desperate that they are now turning to a rhetorical device from 32 years ago, hoping it might have the same resonance today as it did then.  I can tell you right now that it won't.

That rhetorical device is the simple question "are you better off today than you were four years ago."  The simple and demonstrable answer to that question is "yes we are!"   That is the reason I can say with such certainty that this won't work.

It would take a very special kind of historical amnesia to come up with any other answer to the question.  At the time Obama took office, the economy was hemorrhaging an average of 800,000 jobs a month.  By the time any of his policies could even begin to take effect, the stock market had plunged to the 6,000 range, wiping out many people's retirement funds and 401Ks.  The housing bubble had burst, two wars were raging with no end in sight, the auto industry was on the verge of collapse, and the entire economy was on the brink of a total and catastrophic collapse that would have dwarfed the impact of the Great Depression.

In the intervening three years, we have now seen 29 consecutive months of job growth, fueled largely by the private sector.  If it had not been for massive governmental layoffs, primarily dictated by Republican-leaning "austerity" policies, the job growth would have been even more substantial.  The stock market is now in the 13,000 range.  GM and Chrysler are back with more vigor than ever - an accomplishment that goes beyond the million or so jobs saved, but reverberates through the entire supply chain.  A failed U.S. auto industry would have been devastating to the entire economy of the Midwest and the nation as a whole.

The Iraq war is over, and a plan is in place to phase out the war in Afghanistan.  The housing market has stabilized, and is even starting to climb back up in some places.  Interest rates remain at historic lows.

One of the powerful themes of Obama's 2008 campaign was "Yes we can."  So what I would like to see happen at the DNC over the next few days is for somebody to stand on that podium and shout "Yes We Are," and build that into a chant that will ring out through the hall and represent the truth of the situation -- that we really are.