Economic “good news” Obama’s timely strategy

“The economy got more good news, report Ben Casselman and Jon Hilsenrath: "After more than two years of frustrating fits and starts, the U.S. economy is showing signs of moving onto firmer ground. A host of reports Thursday underscored that point, as well as the perils that persist. The number of Americans filing initial claims for government unemployment benefits has fallen to levels last seen before Lehman Brothers collapsed, the Labor Department said. The stock market, a leading indicator of growth, is off to its best start this year since 1998 and notched more gains Thursday. Meantime, consumer confidence has reclaimed ground lost last year, and another report showed that income growth is firming. However the economy is far from robust. Government and company reports showed consumer spending has been mixed. And the manufacturing sector, though on the rebound, isn't booming, according to a survey of manufacturing purchasing managers by the Institute for Supply Management."

@Neil_Irwin: Quite a good jobless claims number. Down to 351,000, from revised 353k.

@BetseyStevenson: Isn't it lucky that jobless claims get systematically revised up from the past week--we get so many more "jobless claims fall" headlines”