Breaking: 25% of Americans Just Aren't Paying Attention

Of course, an alternate explanation may be that they've been hit on the head by something heavy.

Three out of four Americans, including large numbers of Republicans, blame President Bush's economic policies for making the country worse off during the last eight years, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released Wednesday, reflecting a sharp increase in public pessimism during the last year.

But then, if you slice the numbers a little, you learn that:

Nine percent of respondents said the country's economic condition had improved since Bush became president, compared with 75% who said conditions had worsened.

That sounds a little overly-optimistic to me, and I'd venture to guess that some of those 9% are the sort of folks that feel like - any day now - they're going to catch up with the Joneses and be part of that upper class.

It's been painfully obvious for quite some time, to anyone paying attention, that Bush's economic policies are succeeding swimmingly, and exactly as designed. No incompetence there, just a laser focus on those Americans to whose benefit they're geared, which is - unfortunately for Mr. Struggling-Under-Two-Mortgages-And-A-HELOC-And-Otherwise-Crushing-Debt - much more along the lines of the very richest 1% of the population.