Let's face it, the economy has gotten to be a snooze

The Romney people must be getting terribly frustrated. At the start of 2012, jobs and the economy were issues that worried most Americans - and which President Obama wasn't handling all too well, according to the polls. In the ensuing months, the economic measurements went up, then down, then up again - a sluggish but unmistakable recovery. Nobody likes the pace, but by now it seems as if most folks are getting used to it. A Fox News survey finds that 42 percent of likely voters say they're actually better off today than they were four years ago, while 42 percent say they aren't. When asked if they're better off than a year ago, 44 percent say yes and 39 percent say no. That's not great news for a challenger who insists that things are worse. A similar softening in consumer sentiment is seen in a Gallup poll. The truth is the economy just isn't the gory story that it used to be. This may be a slumbering recovery, but the polls are beginning to suggest an acceptance of highish unemployment and limited job growth. How else do you explain the political pivots to non-economic issues, starting with the abortion/rape debate, followed by the Medicare skirmishes, and now the back-and-forth over Egypt and Libya? Plus, with the stock market at or near four-year highs, Romney's sky-is-falling scenarios become a lot harder to sustain. Of course, this could change overnight. All it takes is a Mideast blowup that raises gas prices overnight or a stock market crash. But growth as we've seen it this summer - however limited, however scattered - probably won't be enough to defeat Obama.