The Circle Is Near Completion: Nine Straight Sessions In The Red

Those who had long compared President Obama to President Carter can gloat for awhile because now they have a statistic to back them up. For the first time since 1978, when President Carter was in office, the stock market declined for nine straight sessions yesterday, August 4, 2011.Unfortunately, the fact that the stock market has had nine straight sessions of decline is no guarantee that the market is destined to rise on the tenth day. To say the least, nine straight sessions in the red does not bode well for an economy attempting to recover.

It is somewhat comical reflecting on this fact considering there have been those suggesting that President Obama would be like President Carter ever since the 2008 election. One cannot help but notice the similarities. Like President Carter, President Obama rose to power with promise and a message of hope for Americans.

President Carter originally sought to reorganize the government in the wake of the Watergate scandal. This is parallel to President Obama's pledge of greater transparency and change in government. Like President Carter, President Obama's tenure has been marked by economic stagflation and has not been without various crises such as the BP oil spill. Also like President Carter, President Obama is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize though President Carter received his after leaving office.

One cannot help but feel a bit disappointed with the parallels between President Carter and President Obama. Many believed that President Obama was destined to be the world's next JFK. Somewhere, at some point in time, reality eventually set in, and for now things are as they are. This is the problem with putting expectations on politicians -- in the end, a politican is a politician.

Where people thought that Obama was going to change Washington, it appears that Washington changed Obama. Of course, President Obama could still prove to be the great president that his supporters expected. Maybe one day. But in the meantime, the clock is ticking, the stock market is falling, and people are not happy.

Though nine consecutive sessions in the red sounds beyond gloomy, every cloud does have a silver lining. Maybe a present-day parallel to President Carter is something to be a bit optimistic about. After President Carter left office, President Reagan entered the White House and things somewhat stabilized over time.

Where many conservatives are praying for a return to the Reagan years with "Reaganomics", perhaps (if only for conservatives) the future is something to be looked forward to after all. Even if one believes that President Obama's chances of reelection are good, given the weak field of Republican presidential candidates, the numbers are starting to strongly suggest that President Obama's fate will be the same as President Carter's: a one-term president.