CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat who lost the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election to Gov. Scott Walker, said Monday that people must have "political amnesia" if they think they're not "better off" than four years ago.

"One of the strong points of Americans is that we are capable of having political amnesia," Barrett told Business Insider Monday afternoon while attending the pre-Democratic National Convention festival in Charlotte. "And I think many of them have forgotten just how close we were, when George Bush was president, to having the bottom drop out of our economy. President Obama and his policies prevented that from happening."

"So there's no question that if you look at where we were — the economy was collapsing under George Bush — that we're better off now."

Barrett's sentiments join the pushback from the Obama campaign Monday on a comment from Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who suggested Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Americans were not better off now compared with four years ago.

"No," O'Malley said in response to host Bob Schieffer's question. "But that's not the question of this election."

"The question," he continued, "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 credit cards, the national credit card..."

O'Malley walked back on that comment Monday, saying on CNN's "Starting Point" that the country is "clearly better off."

Barrett at CarolinaFest on Monday Brett LoGiurato/Business Insider Barrett agreed, pointing to the U.S.'s 2.6 million lost jobs in 2008. Barrett also noted that this point in 2008 brought about the fall of two American financial titans — Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers.

"Clearly, President Obama took steps to ensure that we didn't have a total breakdown," Barrett said.

Republicans have seized on O'Malley's quote in the past two days, portraying it as evidence that Obama is losing support among even his own surrogates. Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan campaigned on the issue Monday just four short hours away in Greenville, N.C.

"When you take a look at what we’re going to hear in Charlotte today, the President can say a lot of things, and he will, but he can’t tell you that you’re better off," Ryan said. "Simply put, the Jimmy Carter years look like the good old days compared to where we are right now.”