Particularly worrisome for the White House is the 17-point decline in job approval for Mr. Obama over the past month among people under 30 years of age, according to the June 13 CNN/ORC poll. This is significant erosion in what CNN Polling Director Keating Holland calls one of “the most loyal parts of the Obama coalition.” Public comments by CNN pollsters suggest that the millennial generation seems very concerned with what its members perceive as the NSA’s activities’ threat to civil liberties.

The president didn’t help himself by saying he welcomed a national debate on this topic and then remaining silent until Monday, when he defended the NSA’s work in a television appearance with Charlie Rose on PBS. And he may have created more problems when it comes to his veracity.

For example, the president asserted the NSA’s efforts were “transparent” when they are not nor should they be. Why reveal methods to the terrorist enemy so they can adjust to avoid detection? Mr. Obama also claimed, “We set up the FISA court.” In reality, the law establishing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was passed in 1978, when the president was still a junior in high school.