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economy. yes, interest rates are a little bit higher. they re historically low. yes, gas prices have gotten high higher, but they ve been going down. they re lower than any other country in the west. not exactly sure why those numbers are plummeting to record lows. well, i think, joe, you know, we know two things. we certainly know two things. as americans, we have very little attention span, given that we have everything instantly at our disposal through our iphones and things like that. we are also clearly not a reflective nation. inflation in europe, steve, i think is higher than it is here. prices in europe are higher than they are here. unemployment in europe is higher than it is here. so you can make a case that we have a very strong economy still going on. but it s the little things, i think, to joe s point, that cause anxiety among people. that s why the university of michigan poll, i would think,
think potentially could beat donald trump? joe biden just beat him 18 months ago. but when asked, okay, let s say biden does run again, would you vote for him against donald trump? 92% of democrats say, well, of course i would. when there is a choice come home. sitting side by side, they do come home. let s get back to what you were talking about. a couple polls on the state level. in ohio, an online survey connected by center street pac found representative tim ryan with a wide lead over republican candidate j.d. vance. 49% to 40%. that s among likely voters. in pennsylvania, suffolk university poll from last month of likely midterm voters found democrat john fetterman with a lead over his republican opponent for u.s. senate, mehmet oz, 46%, 37% there. joe, those are one poll in each state. we had the one out of georgia last week where raphael warnock beat herschel walker by ten
crude oil has also settled back. these are all hopeful signs the inflation problem isn t getting out of problem and is, indeed, starting to moderate a little bit. you know, steve, on your next chart, we talk about consumers, about consumer spending and consumer confidence. i must say, we ve always looked at, what is it, the university of michigan always had the consumer confidence studies. they seem so disconnected, not only from where the economy is going, but also they seem disconnected from what consumers themselves are doing. they re spending more, much more than they were at the depths of covid. yet, those numbers keep going down on the confidence side. they are spending more than the depths of covid, and that, of course, is part of the working shortage problem, the fact you still can t get a lot of things, the fact we have this unbelievable mess in the airports and the air travel system is a function of consumers spending more. at the same time, joe, look at retail sales on t
democrats, on climate, on the big topic of the day of health care. joe, the party has abandoned that. candidates can t talk about it because there is no position on any of those issues you mentioned. you know, you got herschel walker out there basically talking about the republican position on the climate. oh, well, good air leaves america and goes to china, and we get china s bad air. everybody in the room is like, yeah, that s what we do. so, you know well, that what to you think is going to happen? if you re mitch mcconnell and looking at it, well, a, we don t need that in the senate and, b, with that, we re not getting the senate. yeah. so that s the problem. there is no structure. the leadership has abandoned control over the kinds of