CNN Poll: Solid economy lifts Obama approval to 2014-high

[DrScholl]

So, the idea is the GOP should benefit from work they didn't do? Of course, that's how they always operate. Bush took credit for Clinton's work.

And considering that McConnell and Boehner's approval is very low, I hardly think anyone but a few extreme partisans is enthused about them.

[DrScholl]

So, the idea is the GOP should benefit from work they didn't do? Of course, that's how they always operate. Bush took credit for Clinton's work.

And considering that McConnell and Boehner's approval is very low, I hardly think anyone but a few extreme partisans is enthused about them.

That's politics. The economy was recovering under George H.W. Bush - but Clinton won anyway. His influence on the U.S. economy was marginal, but that didn't stop him from claiming all the credit. More credit went to the Reagan deregulation and business adjustments in the 1980s and the (conervative) Federal Reserve headed by (Republican) Alan Greenspan and the tech boom of the 1990s.

That said, I don't care particularly if Obama is responsible, as long as we take the credit, of course. As a Republican partisan, if the stars work out (and why not? The economic recovery is nothing like the Clinton boom of the late 1990s or the Reagan economic expansion of the 1980s), and we win the Presidency, the strengthening economy expands the GOP's menu of options to exercise our power.

Drastically downsize the welfare state, put Kennedy's replacement on the Supreme Court, gut the budget, and put in the 20 week abortion ban law - a strong economy can blunt the effects in 2018.

But, that's a direct contradiction of the Republican ranting that Obama wrecked the economy. It's incredibly dishonest and little silly to even try to claim credit, but that's the Republican Party for you.

[DrScholl]

I'm pretty sure Democrats have never done it, because Republicans barely ever leave anything in good shape after leaving an office.

[DrScholl]

1980 was a year that Republican won. And Reagan's presidency was full of deficit and created the sub-prime loan mess years later.

[DrScholl]

Let's see, then. 1960. 1988. Even arguably 1992. I misread the statement. And no, Democrats won't be giving us a Clinton or Reagan style economy. They, if they lose, will pass on an economy that is recovering but isn't great.

A Democrat didn't win in 1988, A Republican did. Anyway, it makes no sense to constantly criticize Obama over the economy, but then try to take credit for the recovery. You can't have it both ways and you can't take credit things for you didn't do.