While Obama was taking a bow on his Asian Apology Tour, Quinnipiac released a new poll in which the President’s ratings also took a bow, h/t Ed Morrisey at Hot Air.

Obama’s job approval rating fell to 48 percent in the Nov. 9-16 survey of registered voters nationwide by the Hamden, Connecticut-based university, with 42 percent polled saying they disapproved of the job he is doing.

The Quinnipiac Poll also showed a drop in approval of the Presidents handling of the war in Afghanistan. Voters now “disapprove 49 - 38 percent of the President’s handling of the war there”. In October that number read 42 - 40 percent approval.

Now, don’t misread this as support for the war effort losing steam.

Read More →

So Rep. Anthony Weiner of NY - who is understandably upset that the Democrats were not able to take advantage of Mayor Bloomberg’s revealed weakness in yesterday’s election - made a somewhat passive-aggressive suggestion that the administration spent too much time on Jon Corzine and pretty much no time at all on Bill Thompson. Such things are inevitable in the aftermath of a lost election, particularly when it’s actually the aftermath of lost elections. The double hammer-blow of losing both Virginia and New Jersey’s governors’ seats is going to make a number of Democrats say some unfortunate things for a while. A prudent or experienced administration will let those things slide.

Fortunately for the GOP, the current one is neither.

“Maybe Anthony Weiner should have manned-up and run against Michael Bloomberg,” shot back a White House official, who attributed the night’s results across the board to anti-incumbent fervor.

…which apparently was not enough to actually eliminate the incumbent in NYC*, but never mind that right now. Anyway, if one is going to trade ‘maybes,’ here’s one: maybe the White House should stop letting people willing to act and talk like a thirteen-year-old speak for it? Even if it’s off the record.

Moe Lane

PS: See also Hot Air and JammieWearingFool.

*Including NYC’s - which I wasn’t, until this came up - there were five major races yesterday. Two had incumbents. One won, one lost.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.