This clip from last night's The Daily Show is both.
The premise is that President Obama's re-election chances should be in peril because of a "stagnant economy" and global turmoil, the Obama-as-Carter-v.2 argument, but Romney's incompetence is making Obama look more appealing. I'm not sure how global turmoil is the president's fault, but okay. As for the economy, it's not as bad as Stewart thinks. Or, at least, the reason the president appears to be crushing the polls isn't just a flailing Romney campaign but very real improvements. Jared Bernstein spoke with Greg Sargent about the president's surging in the polls.
I asked Jared Bernstein, a former White House economist who is now with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, if there’s a potential explanation.
Bernstein cited “home price indexes,” which he says are “all percolating up.” He adds that voters may be feeling “the stabilization of the housing market, which is increasing home equity and the opportunity to refinance,” and says we may be seeing “some momentum in the job market in some of the key states,” where unemployment is lower than the national average.
“If you look at Ohio, it’s not just that they’re below the national unemployment rate, it’s that they’ve fallen farther, from being higher than the national average,” Bernstein says. “This is largely about momentum. It makes a very big difference whether you’re sailing into a storm or whether you’re sailing out of a storm.”
So the president's prospects are strengthening -- not because Romney sucks, but because the economy isn't as "stagnant" as some people are saying.
Other than that, hilarious!