Did they use self-hypnosis?

The New York Times is reporting that although things look bad overall for the Obamacrats in November, there are glimmers of hope which come from the faster economic recovery in Pennsylvania, new York and Ohio where many of the most contested seats are located. I think that the reported was either in a hypnotic trance or else on drugs. Let's look at the details:

First is Pennsylvania, the state with more contested House seats than any other. The economy in Pa is doing better than the national average for one reason only, the boom in natural gas drilling that covers three quarters of the state. By election day, there should be over 100,000 job created in the state since the start of the recession solely due to the drilling. It is probably safe to say that the folks in these jobs and their families will be interested in maintaining the health of this new industry. Of course, the Obamacrats in PA are the ones who are trying to raise major obstacles to the drilling on environmental grounds. Indeed, the candidates for governor in PA have split on the issue: Corbett, the Republican, supports continued drilling and economic growth. The Democrats wants to study the issue further (which is a careful way to say that he wants to stop the drilling.)

In NY, there is near total dependence on Wall Street to fund the state. While the economy may be recovering, Wall street is under attack. Also, the state government which is Democrat central is still spending and taxing like there is no end in sight. It will be interesting to see how well the Dems fare in the Empire state.

Ohio is completely another story. Here we have the traditional manufacturing economy which has declined and which is not doing that well. Yes, it is true that Ohio is doing better than many other parts of the country. But Ohio, like Michigan, has seen sufficient job losses even before the recession so that a few more jobs now will not change things for the Democrats.