I’m posting this for two reasons. First, it’s grimly amusing to think that the new popularity yardstick for the left’s messiah, whose power was such that he’d slow the rise of the oceans, is a guy who left office with an approval rating in the 20th percentile and whom they used to compare to Hitler. Second, it’s an excuse to highlight a key bit of new data:

That 53 percent figure represents the first time a clear majority have said The One bears a great deal or a moderate amount of blame for the economy. His culpability is a matter of absolute conviction on the right, of course, but the polling’s been surprisingly stubborn to date on handing the lion’s share of blame to Bush. Even here, Bush outpaces Obama by 16 points, although the partisan numbers are revealing. With Bush safely out of office, Republicans are much freer to hold him to account than Democrats are Obama; meanwhile, among indies, O’s slowly but surely creeping up towards Bushian levels of blame. I wonder if this trend was accelerated by the “recovery” having stalled or whether culpability is a simple function of time — i.e. the longer Obama’s term wears on, the more of the economic climate he owns. Maybe it’s time to start a pool. Pick the date: When does Obama finally pass Bush in this metric?

Exit fun fact: In fairness to The One, he actually did slow the rise of the oceans.