Not since that last time a Bush left office has America had such bad luck. Unemployment, December numbers show, has hit a 16-year high:

With the recession in full swing, the nation’s employers shed 524,000 jobs in December, the government reported Friday, and a rapidly deteriorating economy promised more significant losses in the months ahead. December’s job losses brought the total for 2008 to 2.6 million, spanning a recession that started 12 months ago. [...]

“This is unprecedented,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com. “It’s coast to coast. It’s everywhere. There’s really no refuge in this job market. There’s no safe place.”

Any moment now, conservative pundits will spin this as the result of unforeseeable circumstances—a rogue finance industry and perilous times. Or, like Fox News’s Dick Morris, they might even blame the recession on Barack Obama.