Obama will own it all by 2012 and he will be a one-term wonder. I said as much 6 months ago, and it will be because the economy is still bad. There will be no visible recovery before 2012, and his spending is just making things worse.
The media will run interference for him and scream that Bush so ruined the economy, nobody could fix it in 4 years. It won’t matter. Everybody will know people who are hurting and will want “change.” The Republicans will get another chance to screw things up. We’ll see... Now if the Republicans decrease spending, shrink government and reduce taxes, we will see jobs and they may get credit for a recovery. I’m not holding my breath on that one. After 8 years of Bush, I am convinced the Republicans are for big government until proven otherwise.
Cutting government takes more than wishful thinking. It takes a movement. Republicans will increase taxes and spending. Back during the republican revolution in the 1990s a few independents warned me that republicans don't want to cut spending, except maybe spending that does not lose republican votes. The Bush Rove 2004 election plan was to win votes by expanding increased spending to other voters, with tax cuts to get republican voters too. The debt was called economic growth.(borrowing from the future)
So conservative talk radio labels “Spending that goes to primarily democrat voters” as redistribution, note the argument that nation building is constitutional (as defense) but some public spending project (ironically passed by republicans) is not. Medicare and social security is defined as liberal spending , but cuts in them are opposed by conservatives as attacking seniors.
Democrats have their own games, like health care will pay for itself, calling pork investments, saving jobs instead of creating them. In general, we are screwed.