Newspaper: Obama running out of people to blame

Change isn't always a good thing, argues The Wall Street Journal, as it assesses the Obama Administrations failed attempts to jump-start the economy.

"As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic," the newspaper writes. "Yesterday the Dow fell another 4.24% to 6763, for an overall decline of 25% in two months and to its lowest level since 1997. The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem."

The current recession is in its 15th month with no signs of ending. If Barack Obama and the Democrats continue to have their way, the economic slump will continue to get worse, the newspaper says.

From an editorial about the Obama Administration's fumbling of the economy over the past five weeks:

The Democrats who now run Washington don't want to hear this, because they benefit from blaming all bad economic news on President Bush. And Mr. Obama has inherited an unusual recession deepened by credit problems, both of which will take time to climb out of. But it's also true that the economy has fallen far enough, and long enough, that much of the excess that led to recession is being worked off. Already 15 months old, the current recession will soon match the average length -- and average job loss -- of the last three postwar downturns. What goes down will come up -- unless destructive policies interfere with the sources of potential recovery.

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.