because they will never, ever focus on the problems Main Street is having. Their entire focus is on how well big institutions are doing at funneling money to rich sugar daddies and that is going better than it ever has in most Republican misadministrations.

My guess is that they won't be campaigning on the economy, which is why Democrats need to.

They consistently obstructed what President Obama tried to do, refusing to even allow a vote on his American Jobs Act. It would not be beyond the pale of their standard boilerplate twisted logic to spin any good economic news as the product of standing against this president and his policies.

It's hard to identify precisely why the economy is doing better. I'm no expert in economic matters, but I think some credit does go to Obama for his Stimulus bill and other actions early in his presidency while he still had a Democratic congress to get things done. A Republican administration adhering to trickle-down dogma would likely have produced far worse results.

Aside from all that, barring a continuing economic death spiral in 2009-2010 I think the American economy had enough resilience to pull itself up from a financial catastrophe like the one inflicted upon us by Wall Street in 2007-2008. A president generally gets too much credit and too much blame for the nation's macroeconomic performance, as well as other things like gas prices. Was Obama to blame for escalating gas prices a couple years ago? If not, then does he deserve credit for lower gas prices today?

A rational approach would be to gain a better understanding of the key factors contributing to economic recovery; how much of that can be attributed to government policies; and who champions the successful policies.

I also think it needs to be pointed out that a record Dow Jones does not necessarily translate into a higher standard of living for the vast majority of working Americans and those who remain unemployed, underemployed, or forced to take work paying far less than the job they lost in the Great Recession.

So many average Americans lost so much in this recession -- especially their chief asset; their home -- that full recovery will be long, painful, and perhaps impossible without a significant change in the rules of a game that are rigged in favor of a few at the top who purchase politicians and write legislation like Citigroup just did.

It should be quite clear the Republican Party is entirely in the pocket of the same financial criminals who inflicted so much prolonged economic pain on the populace and got bailed out while Joe Sixpack got the shaft. The Democratic Party also dips into those pockets, and I have been frequently dismayed by this president's selection of Wall Street insiders for key members on his economic team and his support for TPP.

These issues go far beyond the hypocrisy plainly evident in GOP political rhetoric eager to fix blame but silent when the news is good.

because rich people are getting even richer.