This chart from the New York Times fascinates us. When Obama was in office in 2015 and 2016 Democratic voters generally rated the economy as good-and Republican voters rated the economy as very bad. When Trump was President the party ratings on the economy reversed. Then under Biden, the Democrat vs Republican divide flipped again.

As the Times summarized: “When a Republican is in the White House, Democrats tend to take a more negative view of the economy. And vice versa.”

But what’s weird is that the Times conclusion is: “Republicans react much more strongly to a president from the opposite party than Democrats do. That disproportionately affects the national mood during this Democratic administration.”

But this is completely misleading because the economy really did underperform under Obama and has been generally rotten under Biden (until recently). And the economy really did boom under Trump until COVID-19 hit.

So, yes, there is clearly a partisan split, but in general Republican voters’ ratings tend to more closely match the REAL state of the economy, and Dem voters’ ratings more closely reflect how they WISH the economy would perform.