To be fair, given the economic meltdown in 2008-10, a lot of that was baked in and had nothing to do with party leadership. Look at what happened in 1874, 1894, 1930, 1958, 1974, and 1982. It didn't matter that Cleveland blamed the Panic of '93 on the Republicans passing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, or that the Democrats rejected the Bourbons in 1896.
It had everything to do with Obama putting Goldman Sachs in charge of the nation's finances at a time when the public was screaming for the blood of the bankers (and most of us still are). Instead of punishing Wall Street greed, he rewarded it! It was a historic fumble at a moment when the American people were demanding actual change. Imagine if Franklin Delano Roosevelt had put Henry Ford in charge of the nation's economy. What a disaster.
