More on the NYT economic approval numbers. The percentage of respondents rating the economy very good or fairly good jumped to 55 percent from 50 percent in November and 43 percent in September/October. And this isn't just an artifact of the post-Saddam capture bounce. Prior to the capture, the number was 56 percent.

It's a similiar story on the question of whether the economy is getting better or worse. By a 20 point margin (39-19), people think the economy is getting better. Before the capture, the margin was only 10 points, but even that is a big improvement over the margins of 1 point in October and -5 points in September/October.

On the tax cuts, people think they were good for the economy by a margin of 27-16. Before Saddam's capture, that was 27-20. But in April the difference was only 21-19.

Overall, this news is probably more worrisome to the Democrats than the capture of Saddam.