From Reuters:

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – President George W. Bush will point to faster-than-expected growth and other positive economic news on Monday in a speech he hopes will help convince Americans the economic outlook is rosier than they think.
Bush, whose approval ratings are at all-time lows, faces public pessimism over the economy and questions from some commentators over whether the U.S. economy is fundamentally sound, given a soaring budget deficit and a trade deficit with China that is heading for $200 billion for the year.

Some commentators?

“The problem isn’t that people don’t understand how good things are. It’s that they know, from personal experience, that things really aren’t that good,” wrote economic commentator Paul Krugman in The New York Times on Monday.

Ah, that reliable source of balanced economic commentary — Paul Krugman. Of course, neither Reuters nor Krugman consider that another reason polls reflect a disconnect between how people view the economy and how the economy is actually performing is that the media are working overtime to convince people that the economy isn’t as good as the numbers indicate. This Reuters story and the Krugman column it cites are just the latest examples in this trend.