Is This The 'Recovery' Obama Is Crowing About?

By Susan Duclos

This was at the end of an earlier piece, but the numbers, the facts,  should be highlighted on their own.

So, I repeat:

The real question which Conservatives need to ask, isn't about manipulation or timing, but whether 7.8 percent unemployment is anything for Obama to crow about?

  It is now four years later and "official" unemployment is the same now as when Obama took office, 3 1/2 years after Obama's so-called recovery began.

Via BLS - Official Unemployment

January 2009- 7.8% - Unemployment
October 2012- 7.8% - Unemployment

The U6 real unemployment is higher than it was when Obama took office.

Via Portal Seven - U6

January 2009- 14.2% -  U6 Unemployment Rate
October 2012- 14.7% -  U6 Unemployment Rate

Via Bureau of Economic Analysis:

Current Numbers:

• 2nd quarter 2012: 1.3 percent
• 1st quarter 2012: 2.0 percent

Quarterly data: Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the second quarter of 2012 (that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent.

Are Americans supposed to be satisfied that this is the new normal under Obama?