[NYC Republican]

GWB; market declined in 2000, recession started upon my arrival

I felt he handled this poorly. It came across as sounding as if it started as soon as he came on board (that it was his fault) rather than explaining the concept of a recession- that it means it's 2 quarters of negative growth, and that most of that period started under Klinton's term.

[_Jim]

I felt he handled this poorly. It came across as sounding as if

I think you are mistake.

JMO as opposed to your opinion.

[_Jim]

It came across as sounding as if it started as soon as he came on board (that it was his fault) rather than explaining the concept of ...

Why not just come out and say:

"The Clinton Justice department torpedoed Microsoft in March (?) of 2000 sending the markets down in advance of my arrival"?

Going into detail to explain the intricacies of what technically constitutes 'a recession' would be a trip into 'algore excessive technical detail land' ...

[_Jim]

mistake => mistaken

[oceanview]

It did. we saw the downturn coming on strong at work in late 3Q/4Q 2000, even before 2001. these GDP numbers are all over the place, trying to find out when they are accurate enough to identify the "two consecutive quarters" that define the recession is elusive.

I don't think most americans blame Bush for the recession. The only area where he is politically weak on the economy is showing very little connection/attention to job losses, especially offshoring. At many large companies across america, its all employees are talking about, and Bush is talking about steroid use during the SOTU. Bad move.