People haven’t felt this bad about the economy since the first Bush was president. As the current Bush might say, “Fool me once, uh, well…won’t get fooled again. Heh-heh.”

I hate to say “I told you so” (actually that’s not true, I really enjoy being right) but I warned all those young Republicans whippersnappers who got to vote for the first time in 2000, after spending their elementary and middle school years basking in the Reagan glow, that a Bush victory would be Very Bad for the economy. I tried to tell them what it was like under the first Bush, and how easy it would be to squander the Clinton budget surplus. Did they listen? Nah.

And now, here we are.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, released Tuesday, fell to 50.4 this month, the lowest reading since February 1992 and half what it was a year ago. The index dropped more steeply than expected from 58.1 in May.

…The last prolonged U.S. recession was from July 1990 to March 1991. The most recent recession began in March 2001 and ended that November.

These kids had heard the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid,” but they didn’t really get it. I bet they do now.