By E.J. Dionne Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n And nothing better captured the Obama campaign\u2019s dilemma than the difficulty its spokespeople had on the Sunday talk shows in answering the classic Reagan question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?\u201d It was remarkable lapse that a bunch of very smart operatives had not settled long ago on the clear and obvious answer: Of course the country is better off than when Obama took over an economy that was close to collapse.<\/font> It\u2019s still not as good as it needs to be, and Obama, unlike Romney, has the policies to get us the rest of the way.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/post-partisan\/post\/the-mood-in-charlotte\/2012\/09\/04\/d7832272-f6a4-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html?wprss=rss_ej-dionne<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The mood in Charlotte By E.J. Dionne Jr. And nothing better captured the Obama campaign\u2019s dilemma than the difficulty its spokespeople had on the Sunday talk shows in answering the classic Reagan question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?\u201d It was remarkable lapse that a bunch of very smart operatives … Continue reading “Of course the country is better off than when Obama took over an economy that was close to collapse.” — EJ Dionne<\/span> \n