Maggie's Farm

I believe John at PL got this exactly right:

...the administration’s mantra was “never let a crisis go to waste.”Obama saw economic decline as an opportunity to pave the way for socialized medicine, to enact a near-trillion-dollar payoff to public sector unions in the guise of “stimulus,” and to extend the government’s control over various sectors of industry.

I think Obama and his advisers were genuinely surprised, not that their policies didn’t bring about economic recovery–they couldn’t have expected that–but that recovery didn’t happen of its own accord. That is why they are so nonplussed today. They never actually believed that Obamacare, bailouts, “stimulus” and so on would help the economy, so they know the answer now is not more of the same.