Nadir

With the debt ceiling crisis and resulting deal tarnishing everyone, and the weak economy making everyone nervous, President Obama's poll numbers have been falling, especially in questions involving his reelection a year and a half from now.  Nobody knows how this latest epic travesty will play out, and Obama has been unusually resilient in the polls for the economy being where it is.  You can also count on GOPers to overreach when they're feeling good.  But for the moment, it's nadir time, and I don't mean Ralph.

Before the last act however, there was this interesting article, entitled The big lie that Obama can't lead is crumbling; Prizing bravado, we’ve undervalued President Obama's brand of quiet competence.  It adds to the list we all forget of his substantial accomplishments.

Along the same lines, I came across comments by psychologist James Hillman, with a surprisingly strong endorsement of this leadership: "Obama's temperament is a tremendous virtue. At last we have somebody who is cool-headed, who tries to think things through, who can take the pressure, and who can even concede having made a mistake." 

Besides, for all the real and symbolic hair-pulling the left does, there's this research indicating that suicides and homicides go down when a Democrat is President, but go up with a GOPer.