To paraphrase Sheryl Crow:

If the numbers are good

The economy's not bad

If the numbers are good

Then why the hell are you so sad?

There is an entire class of people who think that the economy is terrible. They're called Democrats. They live in this nightmarish fantasy land where the economic situation is half Dickensian and half Orwellian. Frankly, it's bizarre, because it just does not comport with reality. Look at these numbers provided by Michael Barone:

--Economic growth in the third quarter was 4.1 percent--despite Hurricane Katrina!--the 10th consecutive quarter with growth over 3 percent.

--Unemployment is 5.0 percent--lower than the average for the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s.

--Since April 2003 the economy has created a net 5.1 million new jobs.

--Core inflation is only 2.1 percent

--Gas prices, which surged above $3 a gallon after Katrina, are now down around $2.

--Productivity growth for the five-year period of 2000-2005 is 3.4 percent, the highest of any five-year period in 50 years.

So how is it that so many people think the economy is so bad? Simple---Because the media tells them so. Unfortunately, the MSM has a lot of power to simply decide---and then tell you---what reality is.

A glaring example is the way in which the homelessness problem in America disappears during Democrat administrations and then miraculously reappears once a Republican is back in the White House.

Here is a quote from an article by Greg Pierce, found on the Media Research Center site:

"But we saw far less homelessness on TV sets during the Clinton years. The MRC did the math: During the first Bush administration, morning and evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN ran an average of 53 stories on homelessness annually, compared to less than 17 per year during the Clinton administration...

"...Goldberg cited a 1999 column by the Providence Journal's Philip Terzian, formerly of the Carter administration, that showed the New York Times ran 50 stories on homelessness in 1988, including five on page one, but in 1998 ran only 10 -- not one on page one.

Mark Helprin and Larry Elder have more on this...

And there is plenty more out there, beyond the mainstream media matrix, for those who are willing to take the red pill...