President Obama mentioned, rather casually I thought, at last week's White House press conference that the unemployment rate in this country was going to surpass 10 percent. That's a big number. It was that high only once since the end of World War II. That came during Ronald Reagan's first term--and 26 Republican House members paid for it in the 1982 mid-term elections by losing their seats in Congress. It's certainly too early to say whether the Democrats risk the same fate in 2010, although no matter what your politics, hopefully we won't still be mired in The Great Recession in November of next year.

Nonetheless, the American people are increasingly viewing this as Obama's economy, and not George W. Bush's. That's inevitable, and the president knew his honeymoon with voters wouldn't last forever. Obama is still maintaining job approval ratings in the mid-60s, which is better than his two predecessors at this stage, especially given the economic hardship the nation is facing. But recent Pew and Gallup polls show slippage in the confidence voters have in the Democrats' ability to handle the economy.

That's understandable. The unemployment rate was 6.1 percent on Election Day last year. It was 7.2 percent on Inauguration Day. Today, it is 9.4 percent, and our president says, still rising. The annual federal deficit, which freaked out lawmakers last summer when it was projected at just under $500 billion, is now projected to be a mind-boggling $1.8 trillion. That's not the national debt; that's how much more the government is spending this year than it's taking in. Obviously, that is not a sustainable number, which raises the crucial a question: Did the president's $787 billion "stimulus" package really stimulate the economy? If so, it may have averted disaster. If not, all this borrowed money is going to make a recovery that much more difficult.

In the meantime, Obama said something else in that June 23 press conference that I found striking. "The American people have a right to feel like this is a tough time right now," he said. "What's incredible to me is how resilient the American people have been and how they are still more optimistic than the facts alone would justify, because this is a tough, tough period."

That's what Reagan liked about the American people, too: Their optimism in the face of difficulties, and it's what "Loose Cannon," in turn, admires about both Reagan and Obama. Come to think of it, all successful U.S. presidents have the knack of knowing how to channel America's can-do spirit.

I'll close this blog post--my final one for "Loose Cannon"--by letting you know that if you wonder what I'm doing from time to time, go to a website called Politics Daily, where I'll be posting essays and columns a couple of times a week. In the meantime, keep reading this site, and by all means renew your Reader's Digest subscription. It's the best bargain out there--as our fellow magazine editors tacitly agreed when they honored The Digest with the prestigious National Magazine Award for general excellence in the largest circulation category this Spring.

"Loose Cannon" was envisioned as a place for civil and bipartisan conversation about politics, and although this author is migrating elsewhere, that spirit remains very much on this website and in this magazine. Thank you, and good day.