If the polls are a reliable indicator, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are at least winning the public relations battle in the government shutdown war.
That's because they're not telling the truth, said Dennis Gartman, hedge fund manager and author of the widely followed Gartman Letter.
In fact, Gartman said the whole notion of a shutdown is dishonest, a case he made in his Tuesday missive:
(Read more: Obama: Congress needs to stop 'governing by crisis')
The nation will carry on almost as it was in the moments before the shutdown, but the Left will wail and gnash its collective teeth that the public will be foodless, protection-less, government support-program-less and that there shall be famine, disease and pestilence loosed upon the world. The Left...including the President...would have us believe the Old Testament trials and tribulations shall befall the republic and that simply is not true.
The military will continue to function, Social Security checks will be issued and Medicare and Medicaid payments will be made, he added:
To those living in the middle of the country, far away from the madding crowds in New York and Washington, little, if anything, will change in their daily lives. Our families in Tennessee and Ohio will see almost nothing different today than they saw yesterday in their lives, and in two weeks they will see very little else that shall be different...the country will carry on. Armageddon shall have to wait for some other time.
Americans generally have been of separate minds about the fiscal battles in Washington.
When it comes to who is responsible for the shutdown, poll respondents blame Republicans. Gallup favors Democrats and Obama over Republicans by a 40 percent to 35 percent margin, while a CNN poll had the margin at 46 percent to 36 percent.
(Read more: Market has more to worry about than the shutdown)
Conversely, when it comes to who has a more responsible approach to budgeting, Gallup respondents placed the credit—or blame, depending on perspective—about evenly.
Writing in the Washington Post's Wonkblog, Lydia DePillis summed up the left's perspective:
Contracts are put in limbo. Future interest rates are unknown. A new healthcare system lies in the balance. And meanwhile, a whole host of issues that businesses need resolved in order to plan several years in advance -- environmental regulation, immigration policy, the tax code -- go almost entirely unaddressed.
These are the conditions brought upon us by a small core of Republicans who can't let go of their opposition to a law their colleagues passed three years ago. And yet, not long ago, many of those same Republicans were declaring that uncertainty is the economy's biggest threat.
(Read more: Tea party leader takes protest to new level)
_ By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him @JeffCoxCNBCcom on Twitter.
