Bulls and Bears
Over at the Corner today, Ramesh Ponnuru is posting bits and pieces gleaned from a pow-wow he had with "three smart and influential Republican strategists." (He is cleverly calling them X, Y and Z.) This bit caught my eye:

THE ECONOMY [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Two of the Republican strategists expressed some bewilderment over public unhappiness with the economy. "I have been surprised [by] consistent data and focus groups [showing] how negative voters are about the state of the economy at a time where we are creating jobs, the markets are kind of up and down, and housing values are holding steady," says Y. "People are bearish and don’t feel they’ll be better off next year." They attribute the dissatisfaction to gas prices.
Posted at 02:35

It's not just gas prices, although this is quickly going to become a problem for the SUV commuting society created by decades of poor urban planning policy, among other factors. They think we are creating jobs? Where? What kind of jobs? Generally, from what I read and hear, any new jobs created during the Bush years pay less and have worse benefits than the jobs they are replacing.

If the Republican focus groups show dissatisfaction with the economy, this is an area where the Dems need to be front and center. If the Republicans are surprised by this, the Dems need to be out there taking advantage of it, reminding people what it was like to live and work during the Clinton years, when our budget surplus wasn't given away to the wealthy or wasted on illegal, immoral wars.
- posted by TJ @ 2:46 PM