Are we better off now than 4 years ago?

I keep reading the question from pundits . . . both right and left . . . (a fair question by the way) "Are we better off than we were 4 years ago?" The answer is simple . . . Bush was still President (Rice was still Secretary of State) . . . we were listing badly (if a sailboat listed so badly it would have sank beneath the waves) but limping toward an election . . . we were in the process of losing three million additional jobs during that quarter . . . the country of our fathers and mothers was unnecessarily bleeding red AND green . . . we were at war in TWO deserts . . . the whole of the financial system was on the verge of collapse . . . and we were desperately pushing for bank bailouts trying to ensure that the system, or some part of it, would stay afloat. That was where we were 4 years ago. Are we better off now? Damn right! though clearly it will take more than President Obama's first four years of wrestling with the Republicans to pin these lying charlatans to the mat . . . but yes, we are better off than 4 years ago before the President took office . . . and clearly more time is needed to correct the listing ship of the nation . . . We cannot entrust this nation to Romney (with all those advisers and "experts" borrowed from the Shrub's (thank you, Mollie Ivins!) backroom cabinet . . .