At a low point in the opinion polls, President Bush found a warm welcome on Wall Street, where he delivered an updated State of the Economy speech at Federal Hall before getting a rock star's reception on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
A booklet distributed to go along with the speech was full of positive numbers: more than 7 million jobs created since the middle of 2003; an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent; real-wage growth.
"Just today, we learned that America's economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006," Mr. Bush said. "That means our economy grew at 3.4 percent last year, which is up from 3.1 percent in 2005. Ladies and gentlemen, the state of our economy is strong."
Not all Americans believe that, though. Polls suggest many people are unsettled about the state of the economy. Mr. Bush responded to such concerns by saying the economy's going through a period of transition, that could make some uncomfortable.
"For many Americans, change means having to find a new job, or to deal with a new boss after a merger, or to go back to school to learn new skills for a new career," the president said.
Democrats say that the problems are actually worse than that, and that job recovery since the last recession has been the slowest on record.
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