The numbers are down and declining, as Ed Carson of IBD writes:
The administration’s difficulties explaining and justifying the activities of the NSA and IRS must certainly be factors here. And one doesn’t really need to consult poll numbers to know that there is a spirit of demoralization abroad in the land. This, in a season when we should be celebrating our revolution, founding, and abiding spirit of optimism and possibility.
The fundamental requirements for American contentment, as any candidate for high office knows, are peace and prosperity. Incumbents are re-elected when citizens believe these define current conditions. Challengers ride into office in their absence.
Consider, then, that the war in Afghanistan drags on with no legitimate hope of either a prompt exit or victory. And that, as Brenda Cronin writes in the Wall Street Journal.
In Washington, meanwhile, the concern is carbon pollution … or immigration … or gun control.
