Politics is a street fight, not a seminar

Considering that 70 percent of those surveyed in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll were "very or somewhat concerned" that within the next year a family member would fatten the already swollen ranks of the unemployed, it was reassuring news that 66 percent still broadly approved of the president's job performance.

Reassuring, since someday soon Mr. Obama will indeed take ownership of the GOP's economic sewer. But that day, obviously, is not yet upon him; it looks as though the multitudes may grant him 180 days or so before they reckon he's had plentiful time to stop and reverse three decades of criminal incompetence and carefree madness.