More Bad News For Democrats

Consumers are opening their wallets and driving the economy forward. This means more jobs.

The appetite of America's shoppers returned in May, boosting sales at the nation's retailers by 1.2 percent, a fresh sign the economic recovery is on solid footing.

The latest snapshot of retail activity reported by the Commerce Department on Monday comes after a consumer pullback in April, which depressed retail sales by 0.6 percent. May's increase was slightly larger than the 1 percent rise some that economists were predicting and marked the biggest gain since March.

Bad news for John Kerry.