The Circle Game (with apologies to Joni Mitchell)

As the final primaries continue to roll out, the chattering classes are busy polishing their approved narrative of the horse race that is wrapping up and the upcoming Presidential Sweepstakes.  To whit, Trump is here, there and everywhere and who are we to question him on matters of substance and on the Democratic side, the old white guy seems to appeal to white folks who can't quite buy into Trump's brand of populism, but also can't bring themselves to vote for the woman with all the baggage Hillary carries.  This also leads to continuous stories of how Bernie still seems to be  in the race although he is virtually eliminated and why does he continue; rinse and repeat with either a Sanders or Clinton spin.  Meanwhile, over at his blog on Mother Jones, Kevin Drum looks at the economy through actual government data and finds it is in surprisingly good shape, despite candidates on both sides of the political spectrum decrying it for partisan reasons.  Of course there are caveats.  Student debt is a huge burden for many, wages have barely kept up with inflation and many who lost manufacturing jobs which allowed for a middle class lifestyle are struggling with lower paying service sector jobs, but the overwhelming majority of Americans say they are satisfied with their own economic situation.   Satisfaction is not the way to turn out your base in election years, so we can expect plenty of economic gloom and doom from both sides as we head to November.  And we go round and round and round in the circle game.