Today's Washington Post features an article on the "disconnect" between the booming economy and public opinion. The paper reports that, according to its own poll, 52 percent of those polled do not like how the President is handling the economy, as opposed to 42 percent who do. The article cites reasons for this dissatisfaction as anger over Iraq, high gas prices, and small wage increases and cites several statistics, all of which are positive except for that of gasoline prices.
The article quotes four of those people who answered the poll, and who agreed to comment on their answers to support the lead. Of the four, three are negative comments and only one of them cites Iraq as a reason. The sole positive quote is less than noteworthy, saying simply "the economy is good" and that the President needs to remain positive. Two of the four were identified as Republicans and two were identified as "political independent[s]". None were Democrats.
The full results of the CBS poll can be found here. The methodology does not specify how many of each political affiliation were polled.
This would appear to make the case of the negative poll numbers a bit stronger than the numbers themselves indicate. If "independents" and Republicans are willing to downgrade the economy, it must be bad, is the implication the article makes.
