No polling surveys will list the name of Jeff Immelt, the CEO and chairman of General Electric, one of the nation's largest companies. But his recent announcement that "this is the best economy we've seen in years" is potentially the most important piece of news that will bear on the November election outcome. With businesses spanning health care, energy, industrial manufacturing, financial services, consumer and commercial lending, and entertainment, GE's results provide an excellent proxy for the overall recovery of the U.S. economy.
The lion's share of economic data back up Immelt's bullishness. An economic report on first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to 310,000 last week, the lowest level in more than three years. Even more important, filings of continuing claims have dropped from 3.7 million to 2.9 million over the past year, indicating that more and more people are looking for jobs and finding them.
According to the New York Sun, one economist at a large Wall Street firm, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that the recent broad-ranging economic expansion is a plus for the Bush-Cheney campaign. "Wage growth is outstripping inflation handily, and often doubles it in most white collar jobs. I'd say the data trend belongs to the president at this point."
The John-John bump may turn out to be a blip. As for the Bush-Cheney ticket, the good-news economic story is written and fact-checked. All they need to do is read it.