the left replies to the great economic numbers

Headline (6/3):

You Won’t Believe the Media’s Excuse for Trump’s Good Economic Poll Numbers

On Monday, CNN poll analyst Harry Enten delivered a reality check to the Democratic Party. Despite months of nonstop attacks on Donald Trump’s economic policies, the latest polling shows Republicans still hold a clear edge on the issue that matters most to voters, particularly the economy.

Enten pointed out that back in November 2023, Republicans led Democrats by 11 points on which party voters trusted more on economic issues. Fast forward to now, and even after Biden loyalists spent a year trying to rewrite the narrative, the GOP still leads by eight points. And it’s not just one poll. In fact, Reuters/Ipsos shows the Republican lead on having the better economic plan has grown from nine points last year to twelve points today.

“How is that possible, Democrats?” Enten asked, exasperated. He ran down the list — recession fears, the stock market, tariffs, inflation — and still came up short. The answer, of course, is simple: The American people aren’t buying the left’s economic spin anymore. Remember when they tried to blame Trump for high egg prices — even though those prices started plummeting as soon as he returned to office? Or when they claimed Trump’s tariffs would drive inflation — and inflation dropped instead? The Democrats are losing this argument because real-world results are blowing up their talking points.

Enten’s most devastating point, though, wasn’t about polling margins. It was about identity. “They have traditionally been the party of the middle class. No more,” he said bluntly. That’s the real bombshell. Democrats have lost the one thing that used to anchor their brand: the perception that they were the champions of working Americans. That mantle now belongs to Trump and the GOP.

Naturally, the Democrats' allies in the media can’t handle this. On “CNN This Morning” on Monday, anchor Audie Cornish and Axios economics reporter Courtenay Brown discussed the party’s messaging woes in light of the latest numbers.

“The poll also asked which party best reflects their view on a range of issues. And when it comes to crime, the economy, immigration, Republicans still hold an advantage,” Cornish pointed out before adding, “although actually, those numbers are starting to slip.”

That’s when Brown had to jump in and dismiss the numbers as bogus. “I couldn’t help but be reminded about a big problem in my part of the world — the econ part of the world,” she said. “We can’t get a clean read on how consumers feel about the economy, because the data has been infected by partisanship really in an unprecedented manner.”

“Meaning your partisanship reflects whether or not you think the economy is good or not?” Cornish asked.

“Right. Do people think the economy is not doing well, or do they just not like who’s in the White House? This is a huge problem right now.” 

She warned that the politicization of economic sentiment has made it “impossible to get that clarity that economists like to see about how consumers are doing, do they intend to spend. Makes it impossible to forecast.”

Really? Brown’s claim that partisanship is suddenly “infecting” consumer sentiment in an “unprecedented” way isn’t just misleading — it’s laughable. 

During the Biden-Harris years, we suffered inflation rates not seen in decades, gas prices that made filling up your tank feel like a mortgage payment, and grocery bills that forced families to choose between meat and vegetables — economic pain so severe it cost Democrats the White House — yet there were members of the media claiming the economy was great. Polls showed there were still plenty of Democrats who insisted the economy was in excellent shape. It’s the same reason why the same people who said nothing about the skyrocketing cost of eggs under Biden only noticed them when Trump took office and then stopped noticing again once they started going down.

Some of the replies from the Instapundit commentariat:

1. Just go with the Obama playbook: all his lousy economic numbers, for his entire, 8-year maladministration, were due to George Bush's policies...even though Obama changed them all. And when Trump came in and the economy soared? Well, that was just Obama's policies finally bearing fruit!

2.

3. The Democrats are the party of lazy government workers, welfare leeches, the media, academia, Hollyweird, and the grifter class. To those constituents, the economy is terrible -- they've lost their USAID slush fund and the billions the Ivy League stole every year. It's gotten so bad that some of them are going to have to cut their European vacations short this summer.

4. Did the same media ever credit left-wing partisanship for [previous] poll numbers?