As we officially embark into President Obama’s second term today, let’s take a moment to examine the new economic normal with which the voting public is apparently quite comfortable. While we’vefinally, technically fallen below the national eight percent unemployment rate we heard so much about during Obama’s first term, there is a very significant qualifier in that math that communicates nothing really uplifting about where our economy actually stands:

The number of Americans age 16 or older who decided not to work or even to seek a job increased by 8,332,000 to a record 88,839,000 in President Barack Obama’s first term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. …