Americans Rightly Blame Bush, Not Obama, for Current Economic Woes

Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress at 8:20 AM on March 4, 2009.

On the Today Show yesterday, CNBC’s Jim Cramer caused a lot of buzz when he declared that President Obama’s policies have resulted in “the most, greatest wealth destruction I’ve seen by a president.” But in a new NBC News/WSJ poll, the vast majority of respondents said that Obama shouldn’t be blamed for the economy’s problems. In fact, 66 percent said it would be at least a year until Obama’s policies “are mostly responsible for the country’s economic conditions”:

17a. When you think about the current economic conditions, do you feel that this is a situation that Barack Obama has inherited or is this a situation his policies are mostly responsible for?
(ASK ONLY OF RESPONDENTS WHO SAY INHERITED IN Q.17a.)

17b. And how much time would you say that Barack Obama has before his policies are mostly responsible for the country’s economic conditions?

Situation Obama Inherited……………….. 84 [224-225]
Responsible in less than six months ………………….. 2
Responsible in six months to one year ………………. 13
Responsible in one to two years …………....……..….. 25
Responsible in two to three years ……………………. 18
Responsible in more than three years ……………….. 23
Not sure when responsible …………………………….. 3

Situation Obama’s Policies Mostly Responsible For …….. 8
Some of both (VOL) ………………………………...........…….. 6
Not sure ………………………………………………………… 2

A common conservative attack on President Obama these days is to claim that he is directly responsible for all drops in the stock market. Clearly, the American people don’t agree.

Tagged as: bush, obama, poll, economic crisis, president obama, econopocalypse, american people