The nation's unemployment rate stands at 8.1 percent, the highest since 1983. More than 650,000 jobs were slashed in February.

"There is no light at the end of the tunnel with these numbers," Nigel Gault, economist at IHS Global Insight, told The Associated Press. "Job losses were everywhere and there's no hope for a turnaround any time soon."

It's March and Obama can't blame George W. Bush anymore.

U.S. companies eliminated 655,000 jobs during Obama's first month in office in January and now slashed another 650,000 jobs in February.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has plunged to 6,500. Now we know what Obama meant by change -- change for the worse.

The recession is in its 15th month and there's no end in sight.

More than 12.5 million people are out of work. On top of that, the number of people forced to work part time for "economic reasons" rose 787,000 to 8.6 million, according to The Associated Press.

Obama, with Democratic control of Congress could have taken bold action to freeze government spending and slash taxes to jump-start the economy. Instead, he and Nancy Pelosi chose to increase government spending and proposed massive new taxes.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost 4.4 million jobs, more than half of which occurred in the past four months, according to The Associated Press.

Obama called the unemployment news "astounding," but urged the American people to give him time to let his economic revival plans take root. "All of this takes time and it will take patience," Obama said.

As many of us feared, the American people elected an amateur to lead the nation at this critical juncture. Obama is indifferent toward the plight of everyday Americans. He is clueless about the economy.

In short, we have another Jimmy Carter in the White House.