Obama did avert financial catastrophe. But his economic legacy is mediocre | Michael Paarlberg

Telling us 'it could have been worse' is not a very compelling legacy

It's hardly surprising for an outgoing president to be preoccupied with his legacy, or to gripe about low approval ratings. It's more surprising for a president to blame them on his lack of communication skills, especially when that president is Obama.

Obama has been on a legacy-building press tour lately, most recently talking up his economic record in an interview with the New York Times. His main regret, reminiscent of the classic job interview cop-out "my biggest flaw is that I'm just too hard of a worker!" is that he failed to tell voters what a great job he did in managing the recovery: "If we had been able to more effectively communicate all the steps we had taken to the swing voter, then we might have maintained a majority in the House or the Senate".

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