Morning Must Reads — Hitting bottom, or still falling?

The president’s job approval, steady in the low 50s since July, dropped to 47 percent. He was down on the sub-categories of the economy and foreign policy.

Approval for the president’s health plan had also been fairly consistent, if low, since July when 36 percent were in favor, 42 percent were opposed, and 22 percent were undecided. But the newest poll shows 32 percent approval, 47 percent disapproval, and 21 percent undecided. For the first time, respondents said it would be better to do nothing than pass the Obama plan.

An almost equal number of Americans wanted to see Democrats and Republicans in control of Congress after the next elections, down from a 9-point advantage in April. Voters think Washington is more partisan than ever (81 percent thought 2009 was a year of partisan divisions). For the first time ever, a slim plurality of respondents (39 percent) believes China will be the world’s leading nation in 20 years. Only 37 percent saw the U.S.A. on top.

But he worst news in the poll for Democrats is that Obama’s 68 percent personal approval in February is down to 50 percent today. If the president’s reserve of personal goodwill is depleted, explaining an unpopular agenda will be very difficult.

Writer Peter Wallstein reads the tea leaves:

“Democrats’ troubles can be attributed in part to changing feelings among some core supporters. A third of voters 34 and under, a group that turned out heavily for Democrats last year, feel negative toward the Democratic Party. And just 38% of Hispanics feel positive, down sharply from 60% in February.”

New York Times — Pakistan Reported to Be Harassing U.S. Diplomats

Writers Jane Perlez and Eric Schmitt look at the deteriorating relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan through the lens of the harassment of American officials in the country to help advance the president’s plan for the region.

Anti-American sentiment is so strong, that adding even 200 embassy workers in the country is being met with serious blowback.

“American helicopters used by Pakistan to fight militants can no longer be serviced because visas for 14 American mechanics have not been approved, the diplomat said. Reimbursements to Pakistan of nearly $1 billion a year for counterterrorism have been suspended because the last of the American Embassy’s five accountants left the country this week after his visa expired.

‘There’s an incredible disconnect between what they want of us and the fact we can’t get the visas,’ the diplomat said.”

Washington Post — Pelosi says rallying votes for troop surge in Afghanistan will be Obama’s job

Nancy Pelosi is going to Copenhagen content that she has done her part for her party, having forced her members to swallow politically unpalatable health and carbon legislation. Those risks have been answered by bumbling in the Senate and inconstancy by President Obama.

Writer Paul Kane says that looking into 2010, Pelosi gives a preview of a less-cooperative relationship with Obama.

“President Obama will have to argue his own case to House Democrats as he seeks support for a planned surge of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday, adding that she is finished asking her colleagues to back wars that they do not support.

‘The president’s going to have to make his case,’ Pelosi told reporters.”

Wall Street Journal — Talks in Deadlock Ahead of Leaders’ Arrival

President Obama’s work on the Senate health bill has been a good warm-up for his trip to Copenhagen tomorrow to help broker an international accord on global warming.

Just as he’s trying to do with Democratic Senators, Obama needs to convince world leaders gathered in Denmark to agree to something – no matter how screwed up – and just look happy about it. The details will be too confusing anyway, so the important thing is to declare progress and then run away from the blasted thing.

The last time Obama went to Copenhagen, he got the brush off on the Olympic games. This time, there won’t have to be any winners or losers.

The White House has said the negotiations are deadlocked, but if Obama promises billions to tinhorn leaders for their votes and assures assure his colleagues from developed nations that earnest expressions are adequate in light of the difficult political climate, he can fulfill the roles Michael Knox Beran described for him – postmodern shaman and healer.

It’s a role Americans may be tiring of, but one that Euros may still have an appetite for. The Chinese and others, though, will make Obama pay dearly for his moment as a international medicine man.

Writers Jeffrey Ball, Stephen Power and Guy Chazan explain:

“Developing countries don’t want to give up the Kyoto treaty, which puts more of the burden for emission cuts on developed countries and prods them to help bankroll clean-energy efforts in the developing world.

In the treaty, industrialized nations that ratified it promised to cut their collective greenhouse-gas emissions 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. The U.S. never ratified the treaty, and China, as a developing country, isn’t obligated to produce any emission cuts.”

Washington Post – Treasury to delay selling government’s stake in Citigroup after share price falls

The Treasury Department had figured out how to get billions back from Citigroup to spend as ready cash on other projects by rearranging tax laws to give the company an unfair advantage, thereby pumping up share prices in advance of selling the government’s stake.

Writer Binyamin Appelbaum explains that global investors sent shares tumbling on the news because they world prefer Citi stay in the embrace of the government than just be another big palooka. Now the government will have to wait on the plain to make a short-term profit and a long-term loss.

“The U.S. government’s push to sell its stake in Citigroup includes an Internal Revenue Service ruling that allows the company to retain billions in tax breaks that otherwise would lose value under existing law. Financial experts said that the change in tax law, made on Friday, amounted to a discrete government subsidy for Citigroup, and that the foregone tax revenues could exceed the profits from selling the government’s stake in the company.”

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