Rachel Maddow got it right about a “tale of two presidents.” We speak, of course, of Bill Clinton, the former president who spearheaded the great economic surge in America and is barnstorming for Barack Obama, and George W. Bush, who destroyed the Clinton budget surplus and the Clinton job surge; who is singing for his supper and barnstorming for his bucks by giving a major (well-compensated) speech at the homepage for why Mitt Romney keeps his tax returns secret, otherwise known as the Cayman Islands. Nothing better dramatizes the differences between the candidates, the parties and the stakes of the election!

The new employment numbers are great news for America and great news for President Obama, and bad news for the Hope America Fails Republicans and Mitt Romney, who yearns for higher unemployment and fewer jobs for the same reason he runs deceitful ads insulting working men and women in Ohio and Hispanic voters in Florida.

I can’t say it better than Rachel Maddow, but would propose one modest amendment and call this “the tale of three presidents” (Clinton, Bush, Obama), which in four years might become a tale of four presidents, adding the stateswoman I applauded in my recent column, “Hillary women will save Obama.”

The first president in our story is William Jefferson Clinton, whose brilliant stewardship of the economy will lead historians to rank him in the first tier of American presidents. Clinton turned budget deficits into budget surpluses and turned economic slowdown into a decade-long surge brought by the leader I call the prosperity president.

The second president is George W. Bush, this week discussing tax shelters at his closed-door speech in the Cayman Islands. As president he turned the Clinton surpluses into massive deficits, the Clinton job surge into the crash of our times, and the wise Clinton foreign policy into an unwise war paid for with tax cuts for the wealthiest representing a GOP that mocks the phrase “fiscally responsible.”

If Bill Clinton led the great economic surge, and George W. Bush created the great economic crash, the third president in this trilogy has done this:

Jobs are up, foreclosures are down. 401(k) plans are up, credit card defaults are down. Consumer confidence is up, the danger of a new depression is gone. Housing sales: up. Housing values: up. Homebuilding confidence: up. Auto sales: up. Auto factory growth: up. Auto employment: up. Heavy truck sales: up. The auto industry: saved and revived. The Dow Jones average: almost doubled.

Because of the policies of President Obama and Democrats in Congress the economic data prove it is comeback in Ohio, comeback in Virginia, comeback in Iowa, comeback in Pennsylvania and a comeback for America that will be destroyed if Romney is elected, and expanded to everyone if Obama is reelected.

No wonder Mitt Romney, who champions the policies that caused the Bush crash, is desperately reduced to deceitful ads that insult workers in Ohio and Hispanics in Florida.

Wanna bet Mitt Romney sent his taxman to the Cayman Islands to get some hot new tax-dodge tips for future returns he will not have to disclose?

For more on this story go to:

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/265559-clinton-barnstorms-for-barack-george-w-bush-barnstorms-for-bucks-at-cayman-island-tax-dodge-soiree