Okay, maybe not. The right is ignoring the fact our deficit has reached pre-collapse levels. Actually there’s two important numbers, the deficit as compared to GDP and our overall debt. The first you won’t hear mentioned on Fox News and the second you won’t hear mentioned on MSNBC. But if current projections hold true, what will Fox News focus on then? Hint: it rhymes with Hi-Dumb-Deployment.

History has shown that Dems are much more adept at helping the middle class while decreasing deficits.

I always wonder what republicans think when they see a chart like this. Then I realize they’re always ready to produce some Bachmann-style counter:

Touché republicans, touché.

Here’s another glance at Obama’s handiwork.

So why is Obama’s economic approval rating reaching Bush levels of tankage? We still have the strongest recovery in the West. There are ever more positive signs emerging, so why is everyone going nuts?

Certainly Drudge’s and Fox’s Operation: Scare the Base has had some impact on perception. This is easily done, usually by showing repeated images of a black man in the Oval Office. Sometimes I think the GOP is funded by the makers of Xanax. Still other times I turn on Fox and need to score some. There’s a connection here…speaking of which, I need to meet mine outside of the Circle-K.

Remember when I was freaking out in 2007 and warned everyone of an imminent collapse? Well, this same blogger is saying, take a deep breath. We are certainly not out of the woods yet, but if our numbers are getting better, albeit barely, and republicans are even more worried, well, do the meth. Sorry, I think there was something in my Xanies.

The GOP is never worried when they should be and always worried when they shouldn’t be. Much of my confidence stems from their unease. Republican fear has always been a clear indicator of a hope.

Just before the great recession Fox News was suggesting that everyone “keep buying shit to avoid a market slump.” I’ll never forget this because I had an entirely different take, involving a global economic collapse and eating bugs.

The GOP remains a decade or more behind the times. They’ve figured out—just this week—that parts of the Patriot Act have implications for our civil rights, and any day now I’m waiting to hear, “Hey, you know, I don’t think Iraq had anything to do with 9/11.”

Whereas I, too, am not convinced our economic numbers are as great as they seem, it’s still an improvement—at a time when I doubted improvement was even possible. Basically our overall debt is still increasing while our deficit as percentage to GDP is shrinking. Some of this is due to something the Feds call less-projected-debt (LPD), better known as semantics. And these numbers are also positively impacted by the ongoing devaluation of our currency, which remains scary. But, keep in mind, I predicted we’d be toast already. Obama is playing our last hand well. Sure he’s bluffing, but it’s a good bluff. Why do we need to bluff? (See: republican economic policies).

And, actually, I rate success by avoiding a complete collapse. I put success into the context of our ongoing decline, which I would rather see take generations than minutes. Hint: we’ve been circling the drain since W departed. Bush, the other white meathead.

Look, the Fed and the Paul Krugman’s of the world have shown much more insight during this economic crisis (this republican created crisis). They’ve done things that I can’t claim to understand, but they have fairly accurately predicted the economic impacts of their actions. The GOP…umm, has never done that, regardless of the topic.

Here’s an assessment of Obama that will make no sense to Republicans—but it will to historians.

“Obama has always been a pragmatist (not a leftist) in economics, and I’d argue that his response to the Great Recession was easily the best of any Western leader because of it. Maybe this isn’t clear now; but in the end, it will be and is already validated by the evidence. I believe that, in the end, that evidence will be critical, if Obama can deploy it effectively to make his case. And in the context of the strongest growth among Western developed countries, he can.”

—Andrew Sullivan

I will take a party any day that gets things occasional right over a bunch who can’t seem to realize they’re always wrong.