QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 9:45 A.M. ET:  Hard to believe, yet delightful, but this analysis was just published in the reliably leftist British newspaper, the Independent.  It's hooked to next week's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia:

If Republicans seize the governors' mansions in both states, the embarrassment will be acute. That is just what happened in both New Jersey and Virginia back in 1993 before the Republicans seized control of the US Congress the following year, dealing a crippling blow to the newly minted Democratic president of the time, Bill Clinton.

But even losing one of them next week will scratch the sheen of President Obama, who seems, one year on from his election, to be hovering in the view of most Americans between competent and fumbling, notwithstanding the high esteem in which he is still held abroad and, of course, in the minds of the Nobel committee.

What is certain is that the almost-mad expectations placed on Obama that unusually warm night in Chicago's Grant Park when he delivered his victory speech last November, have given way now to a general unease about his performance in office.

COMMENT:  I love the observation that the president is still held in "high esteem" abroad.  Well, maybe in the fashion-loving press offices, faculty rooms and cafes.  But I'll bet the foreign ministries are starting to sweat.  They whine about us, then crave our leadership.  Leadership is not what they're getting.

October 29, 2009