Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were put under government supervision.

Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy.

Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch

The US stock market started it's deep slide and the DJI wound up hitting bottom somewhere south of 9000.

The GOP convention, on September 4th nominated John McCain.

I would really rather not think about this again....exciting stuff wasn't it?

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

I am certain you'd much rather look at the past than the present-what with a huge increase in the debt, 3 wars, high unemployment, and ever increasing food stamp use.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

I got the biggest tax refund I've had in years.
RE values are going up. I just had a bidding war on a little rental house I put up for sale.
My 2 youngest are insured till they're 26 and their (and my) pre-existing conditions no longer exist.
Terrorist entities are in shambles post Bin Laden.
I'd rather not think about 08 thanks very much.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Hard to say where you're going if you don't know where you started. And it helps to look back when being asked if one's situation is better now than four years ago.

Seems to me that back in September 2008, there were two wars, of which, one no longer involves a major US military force.

I'm certain that the GOP would prefer to forget the past, since there is a reliance on amnesia of how truly bad it was, when asking the four year question.

The same ideology produces the same results: Failure after failure for the last 60 years and beyond, ought to be their slogan.

Most Republican politicans aren't so big on historical fact and neither are most people. It's why the GOP is what it is.

We forget how bad it was, the worry was depression. It is frustrating that the recovery is slow but in "08" we would have welcomed any recovery. Unemployment is too high but if you kept your job you likely are better off now. My 401K and emergency savings are at new highs. Home prices have turned around here, new construction on my street.....

Start the clock on how long it takes other members to say that the improvement is meaningless/worthless . . .

my favorite, I get to say it first "Failed economic policies".

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

I wonder how many folks on this forum wish that Dick Cheney was still the POTUS?

28 gauge Dick

__________________
You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

This is the point. They actually can make a great number of people think that economic problems started four years ago. I am glad the people here are too smart to believe such foolishness.

In September 2008, Pamela Vernocchi lost her Wall Street Job. She was featured in an article about long term unemployment in Business Insider 2-28-12


When her monthly $1,620 unemployment benefits ran out in Sept. 2011, Vernocchi had to apply for welfare — she could no longer pay her monthly $1,500 rent in Brooklyn, N.Y.

"To be at this point and need to be dependent on the government now, it's not the American dream," she said. "And now that our benefits are over, they don't even count us in the statistics. Now we become the burden on the individual states and cities.

According to her Linkedin status, she has a job as a medical billing coder.

2012 is measurably better than 2008 was, if only for the simple fact that Sarah Palin was being mentioned every three seconds in 2008 and now has faded into ignominy and obscurity. I grinned when I heard she hadn't even been invited to the RNC.

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Lots of diesel W126s in the past
Current: 1991 Toyota 4Runner with an OM603

Neither was the last sitting POTUS, who just happened to be a Republican.

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)