Reasons for Optimism

First of all, apologies are in order for the break over the past week or so. Now refreshed, it sure feels good to be back and to find all these sunny headlines in the news. Take this one for example, from Politico: "Latest polls predict a blow-out loss for Democrats in November".

Puts a little pep in your step, doesn't it? Savor that one.

Somewhat more bookish, here's a well-written editorial that appeared today in The Wall Street Journal. It deftly tracks the history of the economic rut we've been in for the past few years. (Republicans under W. deserve their fair share of blame here.)

...the real roots of Mr. Obama's economic problems are intellectual and political. The Administration rejected marginal-rate tax cuts that worked in the 1960s and 1980s because they would have helped the rich, in favor of a Keynesian spending binge that has stimulated little except government. More broadly, Democrats purposely used the recession as a political opening to redistribute income, reverse the free-market reforms of the Reagan era, and put government at the commanding heights of economic decision-making.

Mr. Obama and the Democratic Congress have succeeded in doing all of this despite the growing opposition of the American people, who are now enduring the results. The only path back to robust growth and prosperity is to stop this agenda dead in its tracks, and then by stages to reverse it. These are the economic stakes in November.