America’s plunge into a Dark Ages of economic superstition happened at the end of the Bush administration, was  impelled by the incessant chanting of media shamans, and capped with a high priest of Keynesianism so devout he openly wondered why destroying one industry to promote another wasn’t bringing about a net increase in jobs.

We have, since then, been witness to the hilarious display of each new release of economic data not only being consistently negative, but being pronounced by media experts as “unexpected,” as they sit like Linus in the pumpkin patch devoutly expecting The Great Keynesian Recovery, Charlie Brown! Then as each data cycle returns the entirely predictable “unexpected” news, they don’t repent but double down on their fallacious nostrums like the 450 prophets of Ba’al.

Michael Barone has found more numbers they don’t expect: poll numbers based on those unexpected economic numbers. He writes today in an article entitled “Pundits gasp as economy dents Obama’s poll numbers“:

Surprise! Just when they thought that Barack Obama was pulling ahead, with positive job ratings, and just after the mainstream media have been savaging Republicans for two words Rush Limbaugh uttered on his radio program, Obama’s numbers seem to be tanking.

Actually, the numbers are not so striking or so surprising. The media narrative for the last four weeks has been that the president’s job approval has been rising in response to good economic news.

But the economic news has not been all that striking. We had a quarter in which economic growth reached 2.8 percent. We’ve had two months with job growth of better than 200,000. …

On the other hand, Obama’s major policies are unpopular. You can gauge that by the number of words devoted to the stimulus package in his last State of the Union: zero.

Or by the persistent unpopularity of Obamacare. Or by the fact that 50 percent in the ABC/WaPo poll strongly disapproved of his handling of the economy. …

Maybe the God of Upwardly Sloping Demand Curves is sleeping.