And if this quarter is like the last four, that number will be revised upward next month to around 3.8 percent. Which means the economy has grown at a rate of slightly less than 4 percent a year for the past two years. And they wonder why there’s a) low inflation b) low interest rates c) home appreciation and d) Americans who don’t know anything about macroeconomics not knowing that they’re living in a miraculously good economic period presided over by President Bush and the Republican Congress.

If the president had chosen to accentuate these positives earlier this year rather than try to impress on the American people that there is a “crisis” in Social Security, then the poliitical-insider impression of the damage done to Bush’s standing might be rather different. Especially considering this week’s legislative successes — which, love ‘em or hate ‘em, certainly indicate that the GOP still has game.