US recovery gains steam

News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.): The recovery from the Great Recession appears to be getting stronger. Alas, politics has dampened the enthusiasm of some Scrooges, President Barack Obama’s critics, who can’t take “yes” for an answer.

As one liberal commentator noted, if this were the second year of a Mitt Romney presidency instead of the sixth year under President Obama, there would be parades in the streets and praise for the president from some of Obama’s perennial critics.

But the facts are the facts. And they’re mostly good.

In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated, there were 321,000 jobs created, an astounding number. Unemployment is down. The gross domestic product grew at 5 percent, on an annual pace, in the third quarter of this year, the biggest advance since the third quarter of 2003. Consumer and business spending are up, and gas prices are way down.

And by the way: When the president was formulating the Affordable Care Act, Republicans predicted catastrophic consequences for the economy, with a federal deficit certain to explode. The deficit is down.

Those presidential critics, some of whom want to run for president based on Obama’s “failures,” are scrambling for some way to cast the recovery in a bad light.