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In an article at National Review Online earlier this week, Jonah Goldberg reminds us of the speech that President Obama gave in Warren, Michigan on July 14, 2009 in which he said,

“Now, my administration has a job to do as well, and that job is to get this economy back on its feet. That’s my job, and it’s a job I gladly accept. I love these folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, well, this is Obama’s economy. That’s fine. Give it to me.”

No problem, Mr. President. It’s yours. All of it.

The $1 trillion stimulus that added to the already staggering debt but didn’t keep unemployment below eight percent as you promised, the $2.8 trillion the country has borrowed since you gave that speech, the 2.8 million jobs that vanished since you took the oath, the rising cost of gasoline fueled in large measure by your intractability on domestic oil drilling, the private sector paralysis brought about by the uncertainties attendant to Obamacare, tax rates and financial regulation.

Since you’re taking ownership of the economy, Mr. President, we’ll also make sure that you’re credited with the dismal 1.8 percent GDP growth in the second quarter and the new low for the dollar against the Euro that was attained earlier this week. Oh, and let’s not forget to give you credit for the recent statements of Moody’s, the bond rating agency, which announced that the country’s AAA bond rating is in serious danger of being downgraded.

That should cover it, Mr. President.

Oh wait.

We left out food prices. We mustn’t fail to give you credit for the amazing increase in food prices over the last year. Maybe it has something to do with those rising energy prices and that falling dollar.

And of course, how could we forget? Home prices. We learned earlier this month that home prices in most major metros have “double dipped,” that is to say after rising from their lows of 2008, they have sunk back below those terrible depths to establish all new lows here in 2011. Just yesterday, we learned that the equity in the average American home stands at just 38 percent, down from 61 percent a decade ago.

Yes sir, if you want us to “give” the economy to you, Mr. President, we’ll be happy to oblige. It is all yours.

But, you say, the President of the United States doesn’t actually run the American economy. Well, that’s what we thought. But in January 2009 you moved in on Pennsylvania Avenue, saw the mess that you are quite correct in saying that you inherited, and began telling us that you were the guy to fix it.

You got the Congress to give you stimulus money and auto company bailout money and programs to help homeowners keep from losing their homes and money for extended unemployment benefits and, of course, the sweeping overhaul of the one-sixth of the American economy that is health care.

It looks for all the world to us, Mr. President, that you meant it when you said of the economy in that speech in Michigan, “give it to me.”

So here you go. It’s all yours.

Just one thing, though, Mr. President. It stays yours. You can’t give it back to George W. Bush. It’s yours today and it will be yours in November 2012.

It’s looking more and more like you might not be so keen to own it then, Mr. President.

But own it you will.

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