The Ides Of March... In October-- New George Clooney Political Thriller

Right in the middle of George Clooney first working on this film centered around a morals-free candidate in a Democratic primary, Obama won and the country-- or at least Clooney's circles-- felt too upbeat for it to make any sense to continue making it. How ironic that when the movie comes out in 5 weeks plenty of people will probably think it's about Obama. "Everyone was so hopeful and happy," explained Clooney. "Now, the cynicism has come back around, so it's time... Republicans hate the beginning of the movie, Democrats hate the end. So we're good."

The movie is an adaptation of Beau Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North, which was inspired by Howard Dean's campaign. Aside from Clooney, the cast includes Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei. Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman. I haven't seen it yet, so I can't review it, but here's a third hand review from someone who did:

He writes: “Whether you buy the rest of the movie will depend largely on whether you believe: a) the American public would elect an atheist to the White House; b) Cincinnati residents will ever forgive Clooney for portraying their city as a greying, washed-out dump and c) audiences want to see inspirational political candidates exposed as lying, immoral scumbags. This may get some takers, certainly more than in 2008 when the film was first penned, but the cynicism felt a little rote to me-- and more importantly, it seems to give Clooney no joy.”

The L.A. Times, on the other hand, says it may be Oscar-bound. But this film isn't the only vehicle driving around wondering why Obama turned out to be such a disappointment. Yesterday Jonathan Alter asked disillusioned progressives-- he doesn't count himself in that group-- why they think Obama has been such a bad president. Peter Wehner responded a few hours later in Commentary:

In one sense, the answer to the Alter challenge is obvious: Obama has failed by his own standards. It’s the Obama administration, not the RNC, that said if his stimulus package was passed unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. It’s Obama who joked there weren’t as many “shovel-ready” jobs as he thought.

It’s Obama who promised to cut the deficit in half. It’s Obama who said if we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care cost curve would go down rather than up. It’s Obama who promised us recovery and prosperity, hope and change. What we’ve gotten instead is the opposite.

What makes Alter’s challenge particularly delicious is during the Bush years he spoke out about the importance of a “reality-based” presidency (as opposed to a “faith-based” one). “They [Republicans] could end up winning in November by distorting the argument,” Alter said in 2006. “But on credibility and the facts, they’ve lost.”

With Alter’s devotion to credibility and facts in mind, let’s take an empirical, reality-based look at economic life in America during the Age of Obama:

* Under Obama’s stewardship, we have lost 2.2 million jobs (and 900,000 full-time jobs in the last four months alone). He is now on track to have the worst jobs record of any president in the modern era.

* The unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent v. 7.8 percent the month Obama took office.

* July marked the 30th consecutive month in which the unemployment rate was above the 8 percent level, the highest since the Great Depression.

* Since May 2009-- roughly 14 weeks into the Obama administration-- the unemployment rate has been above 10 percent during three months, above 9 percent during 22 months, and above 8 percent during two months.

* Chronic unemployment is worse than during the Great Depression.

* The youth employment rate is at the lowest level since records were first kept in 1948.

* The share of the eligible population holding a job has declined to the lowest level since the early 1980s.

* The housing crisis is worse than in the Great Depression. (Home values are worth roughly one-third less than they were five years ago.)

* The rate of economic growth under Obama has been only slightly higher than the 1930s, the decade of the Great Depression. From the first quarter of 2010 through the first quarter of 2011, we experienced five consecutive quarters of slowing growth. America’s GDP for the second quarter of this year was a sickly 1.0 percent; in the first quarter, it was 0.4 percent.

* Fiscal year 2011 will mark the third straight year with deficits in excess of $1 trillion. Prior to the Obama presidency, we had never experienced a deficit in excess of $1 trillion.

* During the Obama presidency, America has increased its debt by $4 trillion.

That is to say, Obama has achieved in two-and-a-half years what it took George W. Bush two full terms in office to achieve-- and Obama, when he was running for president, slammed Bush’s record as being “unpatriotic.”

* America saw its credit rating downgraded for the first time in history under the Obama presidency.

* Consumer confidence has plunged to the lowest level since the Carter presidency.

*  The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.

* A record number of Americans now rely on the federal government’s food stamps program. More than 44.5 million Americans received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, a 12 percent increase from one year ago.

And there's always this: