2012 Election prospects

Soon, and hopefully, people will be analyzing and deconstructing Obama and his administration after the fact.  The likely comparison that will come to mind is Jimmy Carter and his failed administration of the late '70's.  It's hard to think of much Carter did right, especially in foreign affairs, but to his credit he did get one thing right on the economy: deregulation.  By all rights, he should get a great deal of credit for starting the deregulation ball rolling that eventually freed up the US economy from the rigid controls that inhibited competition and therefore growth especially in transportation and communications. Affordable airfares, telephone service and shipping costs all contributed positively to the fabulous growth of the economy that occurred during the '80's and 90's.  Unfortunately Obama has no understanding of the workings of our modern economy as is apparent from this article, and sees the commercial world largely through the prism of the 18th century mercantilism that Adam Smith debunked and buried once and for all in  "Wealth of Nations".  Obama also has no idea of the significance of the Austrian School of Economics and its emphasis on the incentives that drive free markets in the creation of wealth.  This latter shortcoming in Obama's education is particularly unfortunate for had he been aware of all the failed policies of Herbert Hoover in his attempt to promote recovery from the onset of the Great Depression in 1930 and 1931, he would have understood that the democrat party's Keynsian deficit financing effort and the various bailouts were not going to work.  Long before FDR's great spending debacle, Hoover tried them all, including large tax increases on income and capital and the infamous Smoot-Hawley protectionist tariff law that killed all export markets for US producers. In fact, for those who are familiar with the Hoover presidency, it is his administration that Obama's most closely resembles and will most likely be linked with not Carter's which at least gave us deregulation.