We're not out of the woods yet. Obama left us a huge pile of debt and large numbers of Americans are out of work. But for the first time since the Bush days, there's an administration committed to economic growth and optimism is spreading. This is the first time the needle has moved this far in a long time. It was nowhere near here during the Obama era.
What a difference a year, and possibly an election, makes. Nearly six-in-ten people in the United States (58%) say the economic situation is very or somewhat good, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 16-March 15. Last spring, 44% of the American public described the economy as good.
This is the most positive assessment of U.S. economic conditions since 2007, and only the second time that half or more of those surveyed have given the economy a thumbs-up.
Pew is trying to spin this as a partisan result, but if it were purely partisan, then we should be seeing a stasis the way we do in many other polls. Instead there clearly is a wave of optimism that the media is struggling to bury under a torrent of manufactured scandals. There is a great deal of work ahead, but people are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.