**ok, not immediately, it took a year for the stimulus to settle in
If you look at the charts for the first three states e.g., it pretty much reads as a chart where it looked really bad when Obama came in ... and more or less immediately started getting better and then the last chart here (Pennsylvania) lagged (as did his numbers) but in the end, the swings states simply show more recovery.
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&met_y=unemployment_rate&idim=state:ST510000&fdim_y=seasonality:S&dl=en&hl=en&q=virginia+unemployment+rate+chart
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&met_y=unemployment_rate&idim=state:ST260000&fdim_y=seasonality:S&dl=en&hl=en&q=michigan+unemployment+rate+chart
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&met_y=unemployment_rate&idim=state:ST390000&fdim_y=seasonality:S&dl=en&hl=en&q=ohio+unemployment+rate+chart
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&met_y=unemployment_rate&idim=state:ST420000&fdim_y=seasonality:S&dl=en&hl=en&q=pennsylvania+unemployment+rate+chart
It is a weak recovery, but it is not the type of stuff people go all Nazi over. Toss in CA and NY where the economics are awful and they are Dem no matter what, and it just makes for a much tougher "end of the world" sell electorally.
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