I think that by setting expectations low enough, come 2012 virtually anything can be sold over an improvement over what might have been. (Jobs created or saved, remember?)

Keep in mind, FDR presided over a miserable economy for a decade and people never lost faith in him. As bad as it was, people assumed that he was making it better. And FDR *was* making it better, not in the sense that he helped America out of the Depression (evidence now is mixed but seems to indicate that he actually made it slightly worse), but in the sense that, for the people in the worst shape, he created a social safety net that gave them a roof over their heads and food for their kids until they could find a job. That’s something I think conservatives forget.

The problem for Obama is that most of the New Deal is still in place, in addition to Great Society. We have a huge safety net already. The only way people will be doing as bad as in the Depression is if the government’s budget falls apart; President Obama’s stimulus makes that more likely.