Although the national media has not covered it in any depth whatsoever, the Bush economy has turned into one of the strongest booms in the last several years. Despite predictions that it had run its course, the opening quarter of this year shows that we continue to expand at a phenomenal rate of 5.6%:

The economy sprang out of a year-end rut and zipped ahead in the opening quarter of this year at a 5.6 percent pace, the fastest in 2 1/2 years and even stronger than previously thought.

The new snapshot of gross domestic product for the January-to-March period exceeded the 5.3 percent growth rate estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The upgraded reading — based on more complete information — matched economists' forecasts.

The stronger GDP figure mostly reflected an improvement in the country's trade deficit, which was much less of a drag than previously estimated.

The economy does not get much press in a Republican administration unless the news is bad. That isn't just the fault of the media, but also of the people who run communications at the Treasury and the White House. One of the reasons that John Snow had been rumored to be on his way out for so long was the lack of attention given to the four years of economic expansion under George Bush. Apparently, this trend still continues.

One might expect that a better-than-expected trade deficit might get some attention, especially considering the controversies drummed up by political opponents over outsourcing. Again, the improvement will probably escape the notice of the media, due to the lack of bad news.

Cheer up. though, because analysts believe the Q2 figure will drop to around 3%. We can then expect headlines screaming that growth fell by almost half between the two quarters, with plenty of doomsayers to explain why the Bush tax policies are to blame. At that point, they will have to report that Q1 showed such excellent economic strength and hope that viewers and readers can't connect the dots.

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» Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom from Hard Starboard
When I think of how Bill Clinton macarenaed to a second term in 1996 on an economy growing not even half this robustly, and how presidential approval numbers are supposed to be welded to the GDP rate, and how George Bush's approval numbers would sugg... [Read More]

Tracked on June 29, 2006 8:45 PM