While blaming or crediting the current administration for the economy is rather foolish, the electorate is rather foolish at times so this issue has some legs. Fortunately for George Bush, he can mitigate the political damage somewhat by citing September 11th and overall market conditions. The truth is that the current economic downturn started well before the Bush Administration took office and that Bush's policies are long-term in design, meaning that we will not be able to tell whether these policies are successful or not for some time (assuming subsequent administrations even stay the course).
