It's great to have a president whose policies are working so splendidly. Oh, wait...

The U.S. economy grew at an even more sluggish pace in the April-June quarter than previously believed as farm production in the Midwest was reduced by a severe drought.

The overall economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the spring, down from its previous estimate of 1.7 percent growth, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The big revision reflected that the government slashed its estimate of crop production by $12 billion.

About half of the downward revision to growth came from the decline in farm inventories. But other areas were weaker as well including slower consumer spending and less growth in exports.

The 1.3 percent growth in the spring followed a sluggish 2 percent growth rate in the first quarter, rates too slow to lower unemployment. The unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in August. Most expect it to stay around 8 percent for the rest of this year because they anticipate little pickup in growth.

Before Thursday's revision in the April-June figures, the consensus view was that the economy expanded in the July-September quarter at a lackluster pace of between 1.5 percent to 2 percent. They expected the final three months of the year will be about the same. For all of 2011, the economy grew 1.8 percent.

That's not all, citizens. Our president and his advisors have labored long and hard to bring forth the largest single drop in durable goods orders in one month since the recession.

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods in August fell by the most in 3 1/2 years, pointing to a sharp slowdown in factory activity even as a gauge of planned business spending rebounded.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday durable goods orders dived 13.2 percent, the largest drop since January 2009, when the economy was in the throes of a recession. Orders for July were revised down to show a 3.3 percent increase instead of the previously reported 4.1 percent gain.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected orders for durable goods - items from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last at least three years - to fall 5 percent.

Last month, the drop in orders reflected weak aircraft and automobiles demand. Boeing [BA  70.25    0.87  (+1.25%)   ] received only one aircraft order in August, down from 260 in July, according to information posted on the plane maker's website.

Transportation equipment tumbled 34.9 percent after racing ahead 13.1 percent in July. Excluding transportation, orders fell 1.6 percent after dropping 1.3 percent the prior month. Economists had expected this category to rise 0.3 percent after a previously reported 0.6 percent fall.

Who in their right mind wouldn't vote for Barack Obama after this marvelous economic performance. I mean, just think if Bush were in office. It would no doubt be worse, plus, we wouldn't have The One and his glorious speechifying to fall back on.

I've got just one thing to say about all this horrid economic news: "Four More Years!"