Hey I think its great the market has picked up in the last few months, my father is a broker and I have have money invested, so this has def been a boon (although its going to be hard too beat last year after Bush wreaked the market with the little Iraqi excursion and artifically depressed nearly every stock.)
What you apologists are quick to overlook however, is how this really ties to the economy. A rising market does not necc mean a rising economy, even though they tend to have coincidal movement which causes people to falsely believe they do. You have to look at the reasons for the market's recovery to understand what is going on. For one the market has been undervalued due to dotcom collapse, 9/11, Enron & Co, and the time leading up to the Iraq invasion, and the trend over the last 6-9 mos can be seen in part as a correction. Also, the increase in corporate profits are not ness due to growth in their markets, but due to lowering of expenses. This largely comprises of tax decreases, lower labor costs (read, mostly layoffs, drops in benefits (esp. healthcare) and wages, and the dreaded outsourcing,) and increasing productivity (tech improvements, but also longer working hours, which are already the highest in the world.) The effects of large increases in govt spending cannot be overlooked either! <--That, you can attribute to Bush.
Exporters have seen benefits to a weak dollar, but this is not beneficial across the board. It causes imported raw materials and goods to be more expensive. More importantly, it discourages foreign investment. When coupled with skyrocketing fed deficits, has the potential to create instability in our economy from a global perspecitive and increase interest rates (which can halt an economic recovery.)
Put this together, and you realize that this sort of growth is not sustainable. Taxes will not continue to decrease, and you can only cut so many jobs and benefits. None of the above (besides lower taxes) actually benefit the American worker. Job creation, while no longer hemorraging, has been lackluster. Even the last months figures of ~125k jobs created was actually less than expected. The increase in profits is encouraging, but not until it translates in increased corp. spending, production and widespread job creation, can we really say we are out of the woods. (Although this is a catch 22, how can you increase demand for product when jobs and wages are falling/not growing?)
The economy is improving but is still weak-kneed. True economic strength may still be some time in coming. Wait until Americans are back to work and seeing wages rising before you start popping your corks.