To hear the pundits tell it, the reason Democrats took a big hit in Tuesday night’s midterm elections was the sinking popularity of President Barack Obama. And certainly, he’s not riding as high in the polls as he was a few years ago.
But whatever the political challenges that Obama and Democrats faced in 2014—the deficit is too high, the president overreached, he’s not focused, he plays too much golf—the story is different when you look at the record rather than the outcome of one election night.
Party politics might be souring the president’s narrative right now, but take a look at a few of the important numbers (some for fun), which tell a different Obama story.
Nicole L. Cvetnic is The Root’s multimedia editor and producer.