

Source: Emmanuel Saez

Democrats figure to take at least a moderate shellacking at the polls tonight, because people are still so downbeat about the economy — and with good reason. Despite decent economic growth, middle class wages and wealth are still stagnant or worse going back 25 years now.

But amid all this doom and gloom, the exit polls tell us that 1 percent of Americans actually believe the economy is "excellent" right now.

Gee, that sure sounds familiar.Where have we heard it before? Something about 1 percent of us and the economy? Just a minute, it'll come to me. Oh, that's right: the top 1 percent of households now command a bigger share of the income pie than they have at any time since 1928.

I'd hope they think things are excellent.

But let's not overstate things. It's not as if the top 1 percent have taken all the growth. Indeed, since 1979, they've "only" gobbled up 53 percent of all income gains. Although, as you can see above, that's climbed to 95 percent in the time since the Great Recession ended.

(The most recent numbers only run through 2012, but it wouldn't be surprising if the top 1 percent have an even bigger share of the recovery today. That's because their incomes tend to track the stock market, and it's been booming the past two years).

So the good news is that, if you get 95 percent of it, the recovery has actually been good enough to be "excellent." But the bad news is that the rest of us are fighting for the crumbs of the other 5 percent. No wonder that, in exit polls, 48 percent of people still think the economy is "not-so-good" and another 22 percent say it's "poor."

The irony is that the people who have done the best under Obama tend to like him the least. The top 1 percent care about the deficit more than anything else — maybe because they worry about future taxes — and, at least in 2011, 57 percent of them identified as Republican.

Sometimes, as President Obama is finding out, there's just no winning. Unless, of course, you're in the top 1 percent.