On the other hand, cheer leading doesn't accomplish anything. Now, when the economy shows clear signs of improving, is the time to talk about underemployment, low labor force participation, income inequality, student loan debt, and so on. It's not a great time to be a young person trying to get started. Young people and people of modest means certainly haven't benefited from the stock market like wealthy investors and establish households with retirement accounts have. Lots of people, young and old, and people with degrees, can't get a good job.

I agree with Krugman on a lot, but he's the first one to point out these things, and to criticize Obama for the stimulus being too small and for pushing austerity. People who criticize Obama usually don't like Keynesian economics so they come at it from the other side and put the Krugmans of the world on defense. But that doesn't mean the economy is great for everyone right now. We should be able to talk about the issues and still recognize that unemployment is down, the deficit is down, GDP is up, and the stock market is up. Yet, the numbers are funky. We all know that. The unemployment rate, of course, is reflective of low labor force participation and underemployment. The deficit is still huge. The GDP growth rate is good but not great. Most of the rest of the world isn't even doing good. So that makes the US a bright spot in a bad global economy. And the stock market is being goosed by quantitative easing and soaring corporate profits, none of which means much to workers whose wages are stagnant or just barely ticking up. And people aren't crazy to worry about asset bubbles.

Also I don't read the comments here frequently so I don't know if your strawman redditor reflects what people write in r/economics. And how was the economy ruined by Bush? He blew up the federal budget, but wasn't it Reagan and Clinton who deregulated the banks? Let's give the Bush administration some credit for TARP, and don't forget Bush appointed Bernanke.

TL;DR: undergrad econ student agrees with Krugman, thinks economy is improving, but thinks that there are still problems, and it's more useful to discuss the problems than to celebrate.