It’s been a bad month for President Obama. In the swing state of Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Scott Walker beat back a high-profile Democratic recall effort by a wide margin. The most recent jobs report showed tepid job growth, suggesting a stubbornly weak economy. Obama gave presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney a gift that could keep on giving when he declared at a news conference that “the private sector is doing fine.” And the president was forced to assert executive privilege in response to a planned congressional contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder.

It’s no surprise, then, that Obama has been consistently polling below 50 percent nationally — in a dead heat with Romney. That’s a troubling sign for any incumbent.