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Yet every time Obama tries to offer a dose of perspective like that, he faces the reality that people live in the moment.
On terrorism, Americans are less concerned about quiet successes than troubling failures, especially one that evoked harrowing memories of Sept. 11, 2001.
On the economy, people prefer good news now, not updates on how things are gradually getting less bad.
The way Obama sees it, the problems he took on — recession, war, health care, a warming planet — were always too huge and complicated to fix that fast.
So he emphasizes progress by taking people back to where he began.
Which means taking them back to Bush.
"I don't need to remind any of you about the situation we found ourselves in at the beginning of this year," Obama told people at a Home Depot stop last month. And then he reminded them anyway, detailing a nation in financial free fall when he took office.
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