Who was the GOP brainiac...

... who decided we should all ask ourselves if we're better off now than we were four years ago? A quick look at Steve Benen's "bikini chart" presents the obvious conclusion that job losses were steep as Obama became President (800,000 in January, 2009 -- and the majority of that time was under Bush); and while job losses continued for the first year or so, they were decelerating (positive second derivative!) under Obama.

And the stock market has certainly recovered from the Bush tanking. And our spending on Bush's capricious war in Iraq has dropped off significantly. And we've got health care reform -- being disqualified on pre-existing conditions is a thing of the path.

And we have a new consumer protection agency. And Dodd-Frank (imperfect, but an improvement nonetheless).

We are better off in a whole host of ways. I'm very glad the GOP decided to make this a question.

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(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)