The key question for the 2012 election (oh no, I'm rhyming like Jesse Jackson)

Well, a week ago a new jobs report came out. It showed an unemployment rate that moved up to 9.2%. This reminded me of a famous line used by Ronald Reagan when he ran for President against Jimmy Carter. You remember Carter? He's the man who had only one term and then spent years growing more bitter and angry, lashing out at George W. Bush and Israel.

Reagan's line came at the end of his only debate with then-President Carter. It was devastating: "When you make [your decision to vote next Tuesday]," he said to the American people, "it might be well if you would ask yourself: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was?"

Why am I bringing this line up now? This latest unemployment bad news is starting to feel like a rerun of the 1970s. Both Carter and Obama suggested Americans should ratchet down their dreams and expectations for the future. Nobody likes the feeling that our President is not sold on the positive possibilities of America. Remember when Obama refused to say the United States was an exceptional country?

These latest numbers regarding unemployment are just a small part of a general unease in this country. We are worried about where things are headed. Food costs are up, gas prices have soared under this President, any economic progress seems weak and uncertain, the world seems hostile while the administration appears hesitant about what to do.

The official response from the administration is not likely to dispel these concerns. The Wall Street Journal reports that Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, has recently stated that the best-case scenario for 2012 will be an unemployment rate of 8.2%. Wow, that's a lot higher than when Obama took office, despite all his spending and all those promises of jobs "created or saved."

So, we need to face that question: "Are you better off?" For many the answer is "No." Obama will have to say in his re-election bid that it would have been worse if he hadn't been elected. Remember when he ran in 2008? Then he was the man of the future, the candidate of change who declared that his nomination would mark the moment "when the rise of oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." Instead, doom and gloom have settled over the nation.

Maybe he can get away with that defensive position. Maybe Americans who believed Mr. Obama when he said unemployment wouldn't go past 8% if we passed his stimulus will now be persuaded by his explanation that his job was tougher than he or his economists expected. Maybe that's the only way to get around the "Are you better off?" question.

But I think Americans expect more from their leaders. If we're not better off, policy changes that fail should be acknowledged, and those who peddled such rosy but inaccurate cures should be voted out of office.