Obama's tumultuous first term: By the numbers

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

The first four years of the Obama presidency have been, as the Grateful Dead might say, a long, strange trip. There was the flurry of lawmaking — stimulus bill, ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank banking bill — the Tea Party backlash, a massive oil gusher, the never-ending debt-ceiling fights, then the never-ending, budget-busting 2012 election. But "is the nation better off than it was four years ago?" asks Mark Murray at NBC News. It depends on the statistics you focus on. "There are plenty of numbers suggesting that the country is on more solid footing than it was when he first took office," but also plenty more "indicating that the nation isn't better off than it was four years ago — and that the Great Recession continues to take a toll on families." So here, for better or worse, are some of the key numbers from Obama's first term in office:

7.8

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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