Since taking a “shellacking” in the 2010 mid-term elections, and more frequently in the past week when talking about the debt ceiling, President Obama has taken to mentioning Ronald Reagan. On July 13, frustrated at the debt-ceiling impasse, Obama stormed out of a bipartisan meeting on the hill, claiming that ”Ronald Reagan wouldn’t sit here like this.” It is always nice to see a president attempt to mould himself on the Gipper, but the president would be wise to avoid quoting Reagan too liberally, lest he actually be compared to him. Such comparisons would not be favorable.

Take growth. The Washington Examiner notes this morning that:

In a typical economic recovery, GDP growth is supposed to be a lot higher, because comparisons to the prior period are easier. For instance, during the comparable quarters of the Reagan presidency in 1983, the recovering economy grew at 5.1 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.

These numbers sit in stark comparison to this morning’s downgraded second-quarter growth estimates from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which show that the economy grew just 1.3 percent. And what about jobs? James Pethokoukis has pointed out that, “by the 20-month mark of the Reagan recovery, unemployment had dropped from 10.8 percent to 7.5 percent — a 3.3-point drop.” Again, compare this to Obama’s numbers — unemployment was at 6.6 percent when he took office, and is now at 9.2 percent.

The hackneyed argument that it is “too soon” to judge Obama’s economic record is running out of steam. When exactly will it be acceptable to do so? Obama has been in office for over two and a half years now. No one realistically expects that a president can solve all of the problems immediately, but one would expect us to be on the right path. It was thus that Reagan could point to the recovery and claim it was “morning again,” safe in the knowledge that all trends pointed to morning being followed by afternoon, and then evening. The best Obama can do is to promise that it won’t get any worse.

Perhaps the president is right — Ronald Reagan would not sit here like this.