(Newser)
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President Obama has the lowest approval ratings of any postwar president at the end of year one, and he's done plenty to earn them, writes Karl Rove. Poor policies at home and abroad have helped send his ratings downward, as has the increasingly blatant slipperiness of the president's words. These "rhetorical tricks"—like chiding the Bush administration for "hastily" launching the bank rescue plan he voted for—and attacks on his predecessor have "cheapened the office," Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal.
Voters are getting sick of Obama's "blame shifting and distortions," Rove writes, as seen in his claims to have prevented a Second Great Depression when it was that same Bush plan that deserves the credit—it lent banks $240 billion, compared to Obama's $7 billion. Obama may genuinely believe that he deserves a "solid B+" for his first year in office, Rove writes, "but the American people beg to differ. A presidency that started with so much promise is receiving unprecedentedly low grades from the country that elected him. He's earned them."
