Robert Shrum is hoping for an assist from Ben Bernanke. Perhaps, Shrum writes, the chairman will have the courage to pull a John Roberts, launch QE3, and keep a staggering economy sufficiently upright that “Obama may actually be able to run on a decidedly more upbeat path through the fall.”

Mr. Shrum even finds an economist who says, “the economy is stronger than [some of] the recent data would suggest … We’ve had the numbers say underlying job growth is at 80,000 jobs a month where we could see 150,000 jobs a month. Or GDP at 2 percent, where it’s really at 2.5 percent. That will become evident later in the year.”