We had another one of those stories this week: economists delighted because we only lost 345,000 jobs last month because that was not as bad as expected. Forecasters think the pace by which we are sinking is slowing, but even in the best-case scenario, they expect unemployment will continue to go up for awhile, and for the economy to not add many jobs for as long as a couple of years.
And that's the optimistic scenario.
Another year and a half of this kind of dreadful economy is going to put people in a real grumpy mood in November of 2010. I lived through this before, although the economy wasn't nearly as bad then as it's likely to be in 2010: the 1994 elections, when the economy was still recovering from another George Bush recession. They had put Democrats in charge because they were mad at Bush for that recession, but hadn't yet felt any improvement in the economy, and folks were in a bad mood.
I think people today understand the depths of the mess the second George Bush left us with, and so perhaps they will be more patient with this charismatic young President than they were with the last one. But the similarities in circumstances are still keeping me up nights.
Here's what needs to happen to avoid another 1994 for the Democrats:
