That analysis comes from CNN’s John King, who notes that Barack Obama has had some, er, problems connecting with the public in his second term. In the poll released yesterday, CNN asked respondents for opinions on twelve issues, and Obama didn’t get to 50% on a single one — but had majority disapproval for all but two:

In fact, his overall approval rating in the CNN series has barely budged from the announcement over a year ago that the IRS had targeted Obama’s political opponents in Tea Party organizations. It’s also about the same time that whistleblowers emerged to dispute the White House/State Department narrative on Benghazi, too. At that point, CNN had Obama’s job approval rating at 53/45, roughly where it had been since his re-election. It hasn’t been above 45% since.

Only on environmental policy did Obama register a positive reaction, but it’s mighty thin at 49/45. He scored 49/49 on terrorism, but most of the poll was conducted before Americans found out that Obama released five of the most dangerous Taliban figures from Guantanamo Bay — and did so illegally. Don’t expect that number to remain balanced for long, in other words. On issues closer to the midterm focus, Obama performs abysmally:

• Economy – 38/61, down from 43/56 in September
• Health care – 36/63, was 42/55
• Foreign affairs – 40/57, same
• Helping the middle class – 40/58, was not asked in September
• The VA – 37/58 (new)
• Ukraine – 38/53 (new)

The economy will be the real danger area for Democrats in the midterms, especially those running in red and purple states, and so will health care. Those are the top two issues respondents named for the most important issue in the country, 40% and 19% respectively — and they used to be Democratic Party strengths. The White House wants to talk about the environment and immigration, but neither of them even reach double digits on the priority list CNN gets from its survey.

This is the price of incompetence, and this was before the Bergdahl disaster. It’s left the White House and its Democrat allies no room to pivot anywhere. As King and his panel conclude, it’s not so much disagreement on the issues as it is a vote of no confidence in the man who’s implementing them.