In a just-released web ad, Chairman Michael Steele and the Republican National Committee have declared the Obama Presidency “a failed experiment in just 200 days”, citing declining poll numbers and rising unemployment.   As their de facto spokesman, Rush Limbaugh, said six months ago, “I hope they fail.”  And now the Republicans have officially declared “victory”.

Only one problem?

Remember, the economy was already in a free-fall in late September of last year long before Obama was elected.  Bush and the Republicans had been in control for eight years, and they passed every economic and deregulatory bill they wanted with impunity – including generous tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. 

Then an election took place in November which vanquished the Republicans’ platform of an unwarranted war, record deficit spending, complete deregulation of business which directly led to the economic meltdown, and special treatment for the rich. 

The American people spoke.  Obama responded with a stimulus package.  The worst economic downturn in modern history appears to be turning around, albeit slowly – which is to be expected under the circumstances.  And health care reform is going to happen, as was necessary to the future of this country.

Just one comment to the RNC: If  you are going to determine a Presidency’s success or failure predicated on what they accomplish in the first 200 days, you best be reminded that history provides the best lessons. 

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, he inherited the legacy of Herbert Hoover – a staunch Republican President who thought that cutting taxes would turn the economy around after the stock market crashed 90% in 1929 .  Hoover’s unwaivering belief in Capitalism blinded him to the realities of the times.  Instead, an even deeper economic disaster ensued.  Unemployment rose to over 25%.  Business failures and mortgage defaults were so severe that today’s statistics pale in comparison.  The pictures of that era that best depicted the gravity of the problems were the hopeless faces of men standing in breadlines.

For a significant time after his election, FDR faced an American public whose patience for something better was running thin.  Just like today, Americans wanted everything “yesterday”.  So FDR’s poll numbers dropped and the Republicans saw an opportunity to exploit this perceived weakness; they  attacked him by trying to instill fear into Americans regarding his economic policies.  They labeled him a Socialist, a Communist, UnAmerican. 

 FDR stood firm, extolling the the virtues of hope in his now famous words, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Thereafter, FDR was elected to an all-time historic four consecutive terms in office.  The American economy turned around.  By the time he died, his economic policies were the sine qua non of how to jump-start a severely ailing economy.

More to the point, Republicans in Congress were exiled into the political wilderness for almost sixty years.   Michale Steele and the RNC best go back to school and learn from the Republican mistakes of the past, lest they fail themselves, condemning their party right back into political irrelevance for decades to come.

To paraphrase an old adage, “Those that fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it.”