SORRY ABOUT THAT: Newspaper Retracts 2008 Obama Endorsement. “The unsigned editorial goes on to list many of Obama’s abject failures: the NSA spying on Americans, the crippling of the coal industry with no viable alternatives, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq, trading five terrorists for an America-hating deserter, the VA scandal, Obamacare… If you’ve been paying attention at all these past 5 years, you know the list. And you know it’s nobody’s fault but Obama’s.”

The wave of enthusiasm for an inexperienced ideologue with backing from the corrupt Chicago machine was a species of mass hysteria. It’s nice to see it wearing off, and reality being confronted.

Related: The Obama Era and the Collapse of Trust in Our Governing Institutions. “This deep, durable unhappiness with government, and the longing of the public to once again believe in it, was something that Barack Obama brilliantly tapped into during his campaign for the presidency. The centerpiece of his run was not a particular policy; it was the promise to elevate our political debates and restore government to a respected place in our national life. Yet here we are, in the sixth year of the Obama presidency, with the level of confidence in his presidency (29 percent) lower than at a comparable point for any of his predecessors and the ratings for the legislative and judicial branches at or near their lowest points to date. . . . (To remind yourself of the stratospheric expectations set by Mr. Obama, I’d urge you to watch this short clip of Obama in 2008.)”