MORE THUMBS ARE DOWN FOR OBAMA - AT 6:59 A.M. ET:  The president still remains personally popular, and there is much good will toward him by a respectful public.  His policies are another story.  Wes Pruden, in the Washington Times, notes the change in tone:

The president is learning with the rest of us that the damage his early panic did to feed the Wall Street selling frenzy won't be corrected by warm and fuzzy optimism. His “State of the Union” speech to Congress and the bad news in his budget message revealed the breadth and scope of how he intends to expand the government in a way that it can never be cut down to size, no matter how sane and sensible a successor might be. Like all presidents, he talked a very different talk when he was campaigning. But he was unique. Sensible people actually believed the magic tricks. Rabbits actually did live in his hat. He actually could saw the girl in half and paste her back together again.

Ouch.

He would never countenance earmarks; his budget includes 9,000 of them. He scoffed at John McCain's idea of taxing health care benefits to pay for health care for the poor; now he thinks that might not be a bad idea. He never expected anyone to notice the difference.

COMMENT:  More ouch.  We're seeing more and more columns like this.  This one is worth reading in full.

March 17, 2009