True, many recovery policies came from the Federal Reserve, and others—notably the unpopular Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)—began under the Bush administration. Obama’s contributions included the “stimulus program,” a rescue of the auto industry, and a “stress test” for 19 large banks. The “stress test” explored whether banks needed big infusions of capital. Most didn’t.

The process was messy, and although many details can be questioned, the overall impact was huge. Without government’s aggressive response, gross domestic product would have dropped 12 percent instead of 4 percent, and 16.6 million jobs would have been lost instead of 8.4 million, estimate economists Alan Blinder of Princeton and Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics. Unemployment would have hit 16 percent. These numbers, too, can be disputed (they seem high to me), but the direction is certainly correct.

Up to a point, blaming Obama for the sluggish recovery is also unfair. Millions of Americans were overborrowed. Paying down debts was bound to crimp the $10 trillion of consumer spending. Could anyone have realistically neutralized that? Nope. The right’s sweeping indictment of Obama is wildly exaggerated. However, it’s not entirely misplaced.