Simon English: Even the Dow reckons Obama's doing well

Outlook My admiration for Barack Obama is partly based on the people who really hate him. They may not actually foam at the mouth, but you sense that's just a happy side-effect of the other medication they must be on.

The thing is, even on the measures by which such folk measure success, the present president of America is a knock-out.

There may not be a connection between how the Dow Jones is doing and how Dave Jones is getting along, but they like to think so. On this metric he is pretty much the best leader of the free world ever. The Dow was about 7,000 when he took charge and has since pretty much doubled.

Doing his usual cool-as-a-cucumber act back on 3 March 2009, Mr Obama said, in that professorial tone that so annoys those who seem to think it would be better if the US president couldn't read English or even speak it: "Profit and earnings ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stock is potentially a good deal."

He was right. Again.