The media is turning on President Obama

◼ With multiple crises spiraling out of control around the world, stories about the Obama presidency are taking on the air of postmortems. What went wrong, who’s to blame, what next — even The New York Times is starting to recognize that Dear Leader is a global flop. - Michael Goodwin/Washington Post

“Obama Suffers Setbacks in Japan and the Mideast,” the paper declared on Friday’s front page. The double whammy of failure pushed the growing Russian menace in ­Europe to inside pages, but even they were chock-full of reports about utopia gone wrong.

One story detailed how the White House was facing the “consequences of underestimating” North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. Others recounted the continuing Syrian slaughter and the murder of three Americans in Afghanistan.

The accounts and others like them amount to an autopsy of a failed presidency, but the process won’t be complete unless it is completely honest. To meet that test, the Times, other liberal news organizations and leading Democrats, in and out of office, must come to grips with their own failures, as well.

Obama had a free hand to make a mess because they gave it to him. They cheered him on, supporting him with unprecedented gobs of money and near-unanimous votes. They said “aye” to any cockamamie concept he came up with, echoed his demonization of critics and helped steamroll unpopular and unworkable ideas into reality....

That he is now the imperial president he used to bemoan is no long­er in dispute. The milking of perks, from golf trips to Florida to European vacations for the first lady, is shockingly vulgar, but not a peep of protest comes from his supporters.

The IRS becomes a political enforcer, but that, too, is accepted because nobody will risk their access by telling Obama no. You are either with him or you are his enemy.

The evidence is everywhere that his ideas are flawed, that his view of economics, diplomacy, the military, history, science and religion are warped by his own narcissism. He doesn’t even talk a good game anymore.

Yet it remains a fool’s errand to hope he will correct his ways. He is not capable; he looks in the mirror and sees only a savior....

Astounding Numbers of Obama Voters and Democrats Regret Voting for Re-Election of America's Messiah

◼ The One for whom all of America had been waiting for, the fundamental transformer of the world’s most piteous economy, had finally ascended to the Oval Office, the precipice of power from which the dictates of progressive conventional wisdom would rain down upon us like so much manna from on high. - Kyle Becker/IJReview

Never mind all that. An overwhelming majority wish the president had never been re-elected. From an Economist/YouGov poll via the Examiner:

Over seven in 10 Obama voters, and 55 percent of Democrats, regret voting for President Obama’s reelection in 2012, according to a new Economist/YouGov.com poll. [...]

The poll asked those who voted for Obama’s reelection a simple question: “Do you regret voting for Barack Obama?”

— Overall, 71 percent said yes, 26 percent no.

— 55 percent of Democrats said yes, as did 71 percent of independents.

◼ Obama, the shrinking imperialist president - Jonah Goldberg/LA Times

Americans Don’t Like Obama’s End Runs

◼ By a large majority, voters do not think President Obama should be using executive authority to bypass Congress. - Keith Koffler/White House Dossier

The Fox News poll finds that 74 percent think end running Congress through executive orders is “not the way our government is supposed to work.” This includes 93 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of independents, but also, surprisingly enough, 54 percent of Democrats.

Meanwhile, a plurality of voters, 24 percent, give Obama an F on the economy. Only nine percent give him a A, while 22 percent give him a B, another 22 percent rate him a C, and nine percent say he gets an “incomplete.”

Voters continue to be pessimistic over the future of the economy. Fifty eight percent think the worst is yet to come. That’s up from 52 percent a year ago, and it’s the highest level recorded since April 2009.

Romney beats Obama... a year later

◼ President Romney? Yes, if the election were held today - Aaron Blake/Washington Post

MT @PostPolls: 2012 do-over? Romney tops Obama 49%-45% among registered voters if 2012 election were held today http://t.co/UdxJEBEwwb

— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 19, 2013