A new CNN poll shows that a plurality of the American people still blame President George Bush for the bad economy more than 5 years after the "official" end of the Great Recession.

Although nearly two-thirds of Americans still give the nation's economy a thumbs down, the percentage who rate the current economic conditions as good now stands at its highest level in six years, according to a new national poll.

And when it comes to the economic blame game, a CNN/ORC International survey released Thursday also indicates that the percentage of people who still blame former President George W. Bush and the Republicans more than President Barack Obama and the Democrats for the country's economic problems is dropping.

Thirty-six percent of those questioned rate the current economic conditions as good. That's up four percentage points from December and it is the highest level since January 2008, a year before Obama entered the White House. Sixty-four percent continue to say the economy is in poor shape.

"Economic confidence seems particularly high in the Midwest, which might give an early boost to the Democratic Party's chances of holding on to two key Senate seats in Iowa and Michigan," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Five years into Obama's presidency, only a third of the public believes that Obama and the Democrats are primarily responsible for the country's current economic problems.

More Americans continue to blame former President Bush and the Republicans.  But the number who say the GOP is more responsible - now at 44% - has dipped below the 50% mark for the first time since Bush left the White House.  Fourteen percent blame both parties equally.

The fact that the US has a bad economy 5 years after President Obama took office and the GOP is blamed for it would appear to reveal a disconnect between reality and perception.

Duh.

Obama's constant whining about the bad economy he inherited still finds resonance among a voting public that has been conditioned to ignore the president's ruinous economic policies and concentrate their ire on President Bush.

Whatever shortcomings in economic policies Bush promoted - and they were many - the impact of his actions on  our current economy have long since faded. The economy is being driven by economic policies implemented by the Obama administration. The financial meltdown was a horrible event but after 5 years of legislative stimulus and, more imporantly, stimulus implemented by the Federal Reserve, we have yet to dig ourselves out of a hole despite spending trillions of dollars. The fixes applied by the Obama administration have not worked - period.

But try telling the American people that when it is routine for the president and the press to blame his predecessor for the moribund economy and jobless recovery. Perception is reality in politics. And Obama has been successful in feeding the perception that the opposition is to blame for his incompetence and rancid ideas.