Obama's One Year Mark

Wow, what a year, huh kids? Who'd have thought in early 2009 that we'd be celebrating Obama's one-year mark by electing a Republican Senator in Massachusetts? Political winds blow us to strange harbors, don't they?

You may remember a little blog entry I wrote one year ago called "The Obama Baseline." If not, click on the link and go back and read it. I departed from my usual snarky ways to lay out a completely neutral baseline assessment of where the country stood, so that we could have some solid numbers against which we could judge Obama's presidency at regular intervals.

It was also a good read, because I put in a picture of some hot chicks looking at cars at the very end, to spice it up a little. Seriously, I did, go back and look.

Anyway, now that we're a year in, let's take a look at those numbers again, and see where we stand, shall we?

Here we go:

In January 2009, unemployment stood at 7.2% nationwide. It now stands at 10%. Increase: 2.8%

Gas prices, January '09, national average: $1.82/gallon. Today: $2.73 a gallon. Up 91 cents.

Januray '09, oil was trading at $34.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Today, it's trading at $77.14 a barrel, for an increase of $42.51, more than double.

January '09, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 8281.22. Today, it's at 10,542.62, for an impressive gain of 2261.4. The NASDAQ back then was at 1529.33; today it's at 2277.95, for another impressive gain of 748.62.

In January 2009, The Median Sales Prices for Existing Homes, by region, were:
$242,500 for the West; today it's $231,100.
$154,500 for the South; today it's $151,400.
$142,400 for the Midwest; today it's $140,800.
and $257,700 for the Northeast; today it's $223,400.
(Note that the numbers I give for last year have been adjusted in this year's spreadsheet, using more accurate sales figures. I kept the numbers I posted last year to maintain continuity within my own blog.)

In January 2009, the Consumer Confidence Index currently stood at 38; today it stands at 52.9, a significant increase.

National averages for some common consumer items, vs. last year's prices, are as follows: ....Unfortunately, this data is not readily available right now for the 4th quarter of 2009, so Obama's Department of Agriculture needs to step it up in so far as reporting this data in a timely manner goes.

In the Middle East, we still have 115,000 U.S. troops in Iraq as of November 30, 2009, down from 144,000 in August of the previous year; 4374 troops have been killed in Iraq as of November 2009, an increase of 151 under Obama. Obama ran on a promise to bring all troops home within 16 months; he has 4 months left to comply with this. One may logically assume he will not meet this deadline.

Israel and Hamas are still observing a cease-fire, after waging a 3-week war a year ago.

Obama's approval ratings hover around 50%, the fastest drop to that level for any President in our nation's history. The Governorships of Virginia and New Jersey have gone from the Democrats to the GOP.

And everyone's having a fit about the first Republican Senator in over 30 years being elected in Massachusetts.

So there you go, another boring statistical Post, which will unfortunately become an annual event for me.

But hey... you know how I make it up to you guys, right? Have a little eye candy: