How Clueless is Sheryl Gay Stolberg?

Daniel Gross thinks that even though the lead of this Sheryl Gay Stolberg New York Times piece is obsequious Bush-pandering, the interior is snarky and critical: "There's some good stuff buried in Sheryl Gay Stolberg's generally upbeat story about President Bush and the economy in today's New York Times."

Here's the lead:

Bush Steps Up Effort to Focus on Strength of Economy - New York Times: Blessed with a growing economy but facing voters who do not give him much credit for it, President Bush is intensifying efforts to persuade the public that things are looking up... a visit to a microelectronics company outside Chicago, the swearing in of Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. on Monday, a White House speech on Tuesday morning pointing out a lower-than-expected deficit and a visit to a shoe factory near here on Tuesday afternoon.... Mr. Bush has been making the case that his tax cuts have brought jobs and prosperity to Americans. "Today is a good day for the American taxpayer," Mr. Bush said at the White House before flying here. The president was announcing that this year's budget deficit would be $296 billion, as opposed to the earlier estimate of $423 billion. "Tax relief is working, the economy is growing, revenues are up, the deficits are down," Mr. Bush said, "and all across this great land, Americans are realizing their dreams and building better futures for their families."...

"High-income households, wealthier households, are doing fabulously well, but lower-middle-income households are struggling," said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Economy.com, a nonpartisan, independent subsidiary of Moody's.... "It really is a tale of two households, and I think President Bush is not going to gain traction on the economy as long as there is this wide disparity." Mr. Bush and his aides say the president's tax cuts have spurred economic growth, resulting in increased federal revenue, which has led to the drop in the deficit...

Here's the middle:

Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president, call[ed] the shoe factory visit "a real-life example that our economy is growing and prospering." The factory, Allen-Edmonds, specializes in high-quality men%u2019s dress shoes, including some owned by Mr. Bush. By visiting, the president sought to draw attention to a company that has resisted industrywide pressure to move its operations overseas. The company president, John Stollenwerk, gave Mr. Bush a pair of red, white and blue wingtip shoes, which the president promptly put on. Mr. Bush said Allen-Edmonds had benefited from his tax cuts, calling it "an American-based company making good American products."...

Here Daniel Gross snarks:

Make that good, really expensive American products. Take the good-looking Bradley model. It retails for $425.00, about two third what an average worker earns in a week.

Stolberg continues:

By standard measurements, the economy does look good: a 4.6 percent unemployment rate, 5.4 million new jobs since August 2003 and a gross domestic product that grew an average of 4 percent in the past three years. But a poll released last month by the Pew Research Center found that just 33 percent of respondents approved of Mr. Bush's handling of the economy, while 54 percent disapproved. And a June survey by the University of Michigan, which tracks consumer confidence in government economic policies, found that 39 percent said Mr. Bush was doing a poor job, while 13 percent said he was doing a good job, and 47 percent rated him as fair.... "Obviously, it's frustrating to us that the American people don't recognize how well the economy is doing," [Al] Hubbard said...

Which Gross calls a:

great bit from clueless Bush adviser Al Hubbard, who probably has a large collection of Allen-Edmonds shoes...

I think the snark is brought to the plate by Gross, not put in there by Stolberg. I think she's oblivious.