Democrats denying reality.

It's science!

According to Jim Geraghty:

Now, with the presidential election approaching, responses in Wisconsin have suddenly diverged; 45 percent of Democrats now say the economy is improving, and just 7 percent say it is worsening; among Republicans, just 7 percent say it is improving, and 63 percent say it is worsening — a dramatic shift in four months.

Gallup has found that in recent weeks Democrats have grown much more confident about the economy, and independents a bit more confident, while Republicans are still quite pessimistic: “The Economic Confidence Index among Democrats had been ambling along at around +10 from August through early September. Then, in the week ending Sept. 9, spanning the Democratic National Convention, it surged 18 points to +24 and has since averaged +20 or better. A similar pattern has occurred among Democratic leaners, with a 22-point surge in confidence during convention week. Confidence rose somewhat less sharply, up 13 points, among independents who do not lean toward either party (‘pure independents’), while it has held steady at very low levels among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.”

Gallup concludes, “Right now, politics is playing an inordinately large role in the behavioral economic data.”

So that explains why Democrats feel good about the current state of the economy, with its 8.1 percent unemployment rate, its 1.3 percent GDP growth, its gasoline averaging $3.79 per gallon, and median household income continuing to decline even after the recession technically ended. But what about the 10 percent that Gallup considers “pure independents,” who lean toward neither party?