Obama's Slide

It had to happen, even to Barack Obama. The presidential honeymoon is gone and we're starting to see the typical slide in popularity by a new, sitting president. His "approve" numbers have dropped 9 percentage points since February, according to Pew Center report. A CNN survey had him at 78 percent favorability in January. Now he's at 64 percent. Still not bad, but a drop is a drop in political utility, especially when you're also trying to reform health care.

No, I'm not gonna discuss the health care town hall mess. It's all over cable. Go there. But it does fit into Obama's slide in positive numbers, that and the pounding he's taking at Fox or by the radio talkmeisters who have fueled most of the townhall people.

To be fair, George W. Bush was in the low-to-mid 60s early in his presidency through this same period, about August, so he outperforms Obama. He drops a little by Fall, but of course 9/11 changed the math and he shot up to a high of 87 percent "favorable" in late 2001. Comparisons unravel in a hurry.