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Unemployment is down, manufacturing is up, productivity is up and GDP growth is predicted to be as high as seven percent for the third quarter. Hmmmm....doesn't sound like what you have been reading in the newspapers and hearing on TV for the past few months, does it? Liberals in the media and Democrats on the campaign trail have been trying to talk down the economy ever since they launched their campaign to seize power in the United States. Once again, Democrats are about to be dragged back to reality by good economic news.

Here is a short review of the good economic news from the past month:

• The University of Michigan said its preliminary gauge of consumer sentiment rose to 89.4 from a final reading of 87.7 the prior month, beating forecasts.
• A report from the U.S. Commerce Department showed ground-breaking for new homes jumped 3.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.888 million units in the month, beating expectations and up from an upwardly revised 1.826 million pace in August.
• The breakdown of the University of Michigan survey is positive, with the index of current conditions rising sharply to 102.2 from 98.4. The expectations index edged up to 81.2 from 80.2 the previous month.
• Third quarter GDP growth is predicted to be in the range of 5-7%—downright sizzling.
• September housing starts came in close to July's 17-year high and rose in all regions of the country except the South, where they fell 1.3 percent. In the Midwest starts jumped to the highest rate since November 1978.
• Home builders' optimism jumped in October to its highest level in almost four years on the expectation that an improved economy would support home sales.
• Manufacturing activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region soared in October, according to a Philadelphia Federal Reserve gauge of regional industry. Another report showed U.S. industrial production rose in September as factory output posted its biggest gain since April 2000.
• The Philadelphia Fed reported its business conditions index jumped to 28.0 in October from 14.6 in September. The new orders index soared to 29.0 in September from 19.3 last month, while the employment index turned positive at 5.5, up from negative 4.7 last month.
• The Federal Reserve said industrial production increased 0.4 percent after falling a revised 0.1 percent in August. Industrial companies operated at 74.7 percent of capacity, their fastest pace since March.
• Factory production—which makes up more than four-fifths of industrial output—rose by 0.7 percent, the largest gain since April 2000.
• The Labor Department said first-time filings for state unemployment aid fell 4,000 last week to 384,000 from the previous week. It was the second week in a row that claims came in under 400,000. Economists say a number above that level suggests a deteriorating jobs market. The drop also brought a decline in the closely watched four-week moving average of initial filings, seen as more reliable because it irons out weekly fluctuations.

This deluge of good economic news, while good news for America, is bad news for Democrats. Democrats hoped to repeat their performance of 1992 with Bush 41 and portray a short recession as a prolonged downturn—just long enough to get them elected, of course. All of this good news a year before the election is hard to ignore, but the liberal media and Democrats are sure trying! Instead of headlining the good economic news, liberals have turned to the time-honored method of substituting opinion polls for real economic reporting. No need to bother showing that the economy is actually doing well, simply publish polls that supposedly show people are either worried or critical of the President and let people simply think the economy is doing poorly. That may have worked a decade ago, but with the advent of the World Wide Web, alternative news sources like Fox News and the popularity of talk radio, American voters are getting the real story despite the liberal media bias.

Democrats are starting to realize that their attempts to talk down the economy have not worked, so they are switching to attacking President Bush on foreign affairs. Foreign affairs has never really been a strong suit for liberals, and all they have managed to accomplished on that front is to alienate swing voters and encourage terrorist forces attacking the Allies in Iraq and around the globe. It is no coincidence that the pace of anti-Allied attacks in Iraq has picked up since Democrats started voicing their opposition to President Bush's policies and demanding that the troops be brought home—whether the job is finished or not. It is that kind of thinking that has enabled totalitarians to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in past years. I have no doubt that Saddam would soon be back in power in Iraq if we left without finishing our work there. No doubt Democrats would pretend to be concerned about it—just long enough to bomb Saddam prior to an important vote—and then forget about him once again while he tortured and killed all who opposed him. Is that really what Democrats want for Iraq? Is that what Democrats want for the rest of the world?

It is hard to understand a political party that puts their own gains ahead of the best interests of the nation. When their attempts to ruin the American economy for political gain fail, they turn to aiding and abetting our enemies during wartime. What kind of person supports and votes for this kind of political party? What kind of person thinks that it is a good thing for America to fail?

Once again, Democrats are about to be dragged back to reality by good economic news.

This deluge of good economic news, while good news for America, is bad news for Democrats.

Democrats are starting to realize that their attempts to talk down the economy have not worked....

What kind of person supports and votes for this kind of political party?