Considering the disaster he inherited and the determination of the Republicans in Congress to ensure he would fail, Obama's record is quite successful. For starters, after inheriting the Great Recession, the first year of which saw larger declines than at the outset of the Great Depression in 1929-30, he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. He also provided strong moral support for the Fed's Ben Bernanke, who had been President Bush’s nominee. He also restored the financial sector faster than expected and carried out a highly successful rescue of the car industry.