What better way to celebrate a new low in his quarterly approval rating than with a little self-congratulation?

Obama gave the upbeat assessment of his own performance during a stem-winding speech to an overflow crowd at a rally for Washington state senator Patty Murray, part of a four-day mid-term election campaign swing…

“For all the problems we’re going through right now, we still have the best workers on earth, the finest universities on earth, we’ve got the best entrepreneurs on earth, we’ve got the freest, most vibrant economy on earth,” he said.

One female supporter then yelled out “the best president on earth” and Obama replied, “Well, I won’t say that, but we got a pretty good president.”

So good is he, my friends, that he’s capable of magically transforming jobs that already existed into jobs “created” by the stimulus. Just like next month he’s going to magically transform a giant Democratic majority into a giant Republican one. He could have answered this question self-deprecatingly, or at least nodded to political reality by stressing that, while some people are down on him now, he’s still fighting hard to improve the lives of hard-working Americans etc etc etc. But no: “Pretty good” it is. Reminds me of what Kaus said the other day about the man in the bubble: “Clinton reacted to his 1994 midterm loss by acknowledging his opponents’ strongest arguments and pursuing a balanced budget and welfare reform. Obama seems more inclined to just tough it out until the economy recovers and the scared, confused voters become unscared and see the light. Meanwhile, he’ll spend his time in a protective cocoon.”

For your viewing pleasure, a midterm verdict on the Obama presidency from a guy you may have heard of. Note how he limits his criticism to tone and partisanship instead of hammering the particulars of The One’s leftist agenda; that’s life for a Republican governor in a blue state, I guess.