DNC Spokesman: 'Clearly We're Better Off' Than Four Years Ago

Communications Director for the Democratic National Committee Brad Woodhouse said on CNN's Early Start this morning that "clearly" Americans are "better off" today than at the start of President Barack Obama's term.

Broadcasting from Charlotte, N.C., where the Democratic National Convention kicks off today, CNN's John Berman asked Woodhouse what many Democratic operatives were asked on yesterday's talk shows: "Are we better off today than we were four years ago?"

"Absolutely," Woodhouse said. "[Vice President] Joe Biden does it in a very short form. He talks about G.M. is alive and Osama bin Laden is dead. The truth is though is that the American people know. I mean, we were literally a plane that was heading -- the trajectory was towards the ground when the president took over. He got the stick, he's pulled us up out of that decline."

Woodhouse continued, "We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Lost 3.5 millions, Americans I know have not forgotten, we lost 3.5 million jobs in the last six months of the Bush administration. We gained 4.5 million jobs over the past two and a half years. So if you just put those side by side, clearly we're better off. However, we have a long way to go."

Woodhouse's comments contradict what Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said yesterday on CBS' Face the Nation. When asked the same question, O'Malley said no, Americans were not better off. He went on, however, to say the question is irrelevant this election.

"The question, without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recession, the Bush deficits, the series of desert wars charged for the first time to the national credit card," he said. O'Malley amended his comment later on CNN today, echoing Woodhouse. "[The United States is] clearly better off as a country because we are now creating jobs rather than losing them," O'Malley said.

Watch the segment with Woodhouse via CNN: