Charlie Gasparino gets to the nub of Obama’s failure on spurring an economic recovery:

Obama is making a bad situation a hell of a lot worse—and that’s a far bigger scandal than offering Sestak a job to go away. …

His stimulus package was supposed to produce shovel-ready jobs that would repair our infrastructure much like the various public-works programs instituted by Hoover and Roosevelt. But instead of spending the money on building roads and bridges, states have hoarded much of the stimulus cash to keep their own workforces fat and happy. While the construction industry suffers 20 percent unemployment, state and local governments are keeping employment at the DMV just humming along.

It should come as no surprise that unemployment is alarmingly high just about everywhere—except in government and on Wall Street, the recipient of government bailouts, which is yet another reason why investors are getting antsy and stocks are starting to slide.

The former law professor and community organizer, as Gasparino points out, knows precious little about the free market. Raising taxes in a recession? Silly. Increasing the burdens on small business? Ridiculous. It must come as a shock to those in what passes as elite company in the media and academia that their icon is rather economically illiterate. Nor has that icon a very good grasp of history. (“He promised hope and change, but brought 1930s economic remedies that are producing similar results.”)

To recap, Obama’s not good at crises. He doesn’t excel in economics or history. Our foreign policy is in a shambles as foes run amok and allies realize they have an unreliable partner in the White House. Oh, and he’s driven his party’s electoral prospects into the ground. Most conservatives never imagined it would be this bad — and on so many fronts.