This won’t affect the media mantra that America *hearts* Hopenchange but I thought I’d flag it anyway. In fairness to The One, sure, he’s third from the bottom, but how many of his predecessors had done as much damage by this point as he has? His Iran policy’s gone nowhere, the stimulus is a galactic bust, the annual deficit is creeping up on $2 trillion, and he’s poised to ruin American health care by pushing through the mother of all boondoggles — and his numbers are still positive. What does he have to do to get the public to turn on him? “Hike the Appalachian trail”?

The public’s confidence in President Obama’s ability to handle the economy is eroding amid concern about higher federal spending and expanding government power, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — a development that could complicate his efforts to push a health care plan through Congress in the next few weeks.

In the survey, taken Friday through Sunday, Americans by 49%-47% disapprove of his handling of the economy, and by 44%-50% disapprove of his handling of health care.

His overall approval rating was 55%, the lowest of his young presidency. That puts Obama 10th among the 12 post-World War II presidents at this point in their tenures. When he took office, he ranked 7th.

Here’s a bit from Steele’s bid to ride the momentum this morning at the National Press Club. It’ll be instantly clear which Luntz-ian buzzwords he’s using to tar ObamaCare. The S-bomb was also dropped but it came during the Q&A and thus isn’t in the vid.