So despite his muddled, ad hoc approach to foreign policy: his mistreatment of Israel, his pattern of insulting foreign leaders, his fair-weather support for some democratic movements and betrayal of others (Iran, Honduras), his manifest unpopularity in the Muslim world, and his gutting of our military defenses (F-22, our missile defenses and Europe's, and our nuclear arsenal) while China, Russia, Iran and others augment theirs, he claims that we are now respected again around the world and that we are stronger.
How about the economy? Well, he thinks that the people will come to see he's turned things around and saved us from a depression but that it's going to take a long time for a complete recovery because it took so long to get "us into this mess." So he believes he's even performed well on the economy, except a) he would have done even better had it not been for congressional Republicans, b) the people don't realize how well he's done because too many are still hurting, c) even if things are bad, it's Bush's fault or, if you prefer, it's because we're going through an economic disruption that occurs every 75 years, and d) whatever economic problems remain could be solved by pouring yet more money into education, green technology and the infrastructure...
He insists he didn't overpromise, never mind his promises to find "good jobs for the jobless," to lower the oceans and keep unemployment at less than 8 percent. He takes credit for bending our health care cost curve down when it is now indisputable already -- even before the bulk of it has been implemented -- that Obamacare is greatly increasing health care costs...
