Obama's 2012 Election Problem: Things Could Be Worse?

Newser reports:

President Obama “prevented an atrocity” in Libya, but no one’s giving him credit. Why? “Because he prevented an atrocity,” writes Michael Grunwald in Time. It’s called the “counterfactual problem:” “It's hard to get credit for avoiding a disaster when it's impossible to prove the disaster would have happened without you.” And that pretty much sums up the Obama presidency so far. “He is the counterfactual president,” and as Barney Frank pointed out, “‘It would have been even worse without me’ ain't much of a bumper sticker.”

Establishment musings.