Give Obama a break

With midterm elections coming up in a couple of months, it's no surprise that Republicans across the nation have amped up their attacks on President Barack Obama. According to their latest attacks, the president has spent too much and done to little to help the economy and those who continue to be out of work. Any efforts he makes to revive the moribund economy are looked at as a "deathbed conversion," according to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and "too little too late" by others. Give me a break.
In the first place, it's not entirely Obama's fault that we're in the mess we're in economically. Remember that we had entered this recession toward the end of former President George W. Bush's term in 2008. It is fair to say that Obama is responsible for the success or failure of his economic recovery efforts. But it's not fair to blame him completely for the current situation. While not everyone may agree with his economic recovery efforts -- not everyone likes his stimulus recovery package, for instance -- or his proposal to improve the nation's transportation infrastructure, at least he's trying something new. Still, with the economy still in the doldrums and unemployment hovering around 10 percent nationally, it looks like the Republicans are set to make major gains in November's elections. Can the Republicans fix the economy, assuming they take over Congress? Well, they failed miserably the last time they had control. It will be interesting to see if they have learned anything new in the past couple of years.