OOPS: Losing From Behind. “On September 11, 2012, Rasmussen Reports had President Obama’s job approval at 52 percent approve, 47 percent disapprove. Today, October 27, the numbers have reversed—47 percent approve, 52 percent disapprove. The economic news over these past six weeks has been on the whole a bit better than expected, so it’s hard to believe that’s the cause of the change. The campaign and the debates could of course have played a role. But the main real-world event that might have affected voters’ approval or disapproval of President Obama’s job performance is Libya.”

UPDATE: Related: “There are two plausible explanations for Obama’s current slide: voters may be disgusted by the mean, petty campaigning he is running, or they may disapprove of his handling of the Benghazi crisis. Or both. While the details of what happened in Benghazi are murky–probably impenetrably so to the average voter–the impression that the Obama administration 1) failed to protect adequately our personnel in Libya, and 2) tried to deceive Americans about what happened, is both strong and correct. To the extent that either or both of these factors are driving Obama’s falling approval ratings, it is hard to see what he can do in the next week to turn the situation around.”