CONTRITION – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:   I think it's admirable when journalists admit a major mistake.  Journalism is a rather arrogant profession, filled with self-love.  But the editors of the Billings (Montana) Gazette have engaged in a notable act of contrition regarding Barack Obama: 

Sometimes, you have to admit you're wrong.

And, we were wrong.

We said that things couldn't get much worse after the sub par presidency of George W. Bush.

But, President Barack Obama's administration has us yearning for the good ol' days when we were at least winning battles in Iraq.

The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal polls show that Americans are giving Obama lower marks than in 2006 when Iraq was going poorly for Bush and a tepid response to Hurricane Katrina sunk Bush's ratings.

It's not that popularity polling should be the final or even best measure of a president. There is that old saw that points out there's a difference between doing what is right and what is popular.

For us, though, it's the number of bungled or blown policies in the Obama administration which lead us to believe Obama has earned every bit of an abysmal approval rating.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  There's a bill of particulars, and any of us could add to it.  More and more, we see people coming to the same conclusion – that they'd backed the wrong horse in 2008.  But don't expect any apologies from The New York Times, or organizations in that league.  They rarely apologize for the big mistakes.  Little mistakes are easy.

July 1,  2014