TOM BLUMER: Obama’s Scandals Are Real. It’s His “Recovery” That’s Phony.

Related: Associated Press: 4 in 5 in US face near-poverty, no work.

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration’s emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to “rebuild ladders of opportunity” and reverse income inequality.

Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families’ economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy “poor.” . . . Sometimes termed “the invisible poor” by demographers, lower-income whites are generally dispersed in suburbs as well as small rural towns, where more than 60 percent of the poor are white. Concentrated in Appalachia in the East, they are also numerous in the industrial Midwest and spread across America’s heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains.

For some, I suppose, this is not a bug, but a feature.

Also: Is This The “Recovery” Jack Lew Is Talking About?

THAT’S BECAUSE HE HAS LESS TO SAY: Peggy Noonan: Obama Got To Point Where People Stopped Listening To Him Faster Than Most Presidents.

ANDREW KLAVAN: The Sad Fate Of Democrat Women. Love the illustration.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: With NSA revelations, Sen. Ron Wyden’s vague warnings about privacy finally become clear.

ED DRISCOLL ON leaders who glory in the decline.

SORRY. FREEDOM OFFERS INSUFFICIENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRAFT. Sheldon Richman: The Economic Lesson Obama Needs to Learn: Freedom, not regulation, is what the U.S. needs right now.

MARION BARRY: Anthony Weiner “A Good Democrat.”

CYBERSECURITY: House Of Representatives Is “A Hacker’s Dream.”

DATA: Who Serves In The Military? “Generally speaking, folks from Red States are much more inclined to serve in the military than folks from Blue States. . . . The Heritage Foundation study also explodes the myth that military service disproportionately attracts men and women from disadvantaged backgrounds. To the contrary, the study shows that U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officers who do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

OF COURSE THEY DO: NBC plans Hillary Clinton miniseries.

Meanwhile, The Path to 9/11 remains under lock and key . . . .

UPDATE: Get Ready For The All-Hail-Hillary Movies. Maybe someone should start a sponsor-boycott.

MICKEY KAUS: Paranoia, Source-Greasing & Snobbery.

TARGET-RICH ENVIRONMENT: Roll Call: ‘Stop Government Abuse Week’ an Easy Win for GOP. “House Republicans want to leave for the August recess on a high note, so they’re planning to spend next week tackling their favorite targets: bureaucracy and regulations. And an internal GOP playbook urging members to express their natural indignation at government exposes a simple truth about what the GOP is calling “Stop Government Abuse Week”: Republicans know that bashing bureaucracy is an easy political win.”

Especially given the scandals involving abuse of power in so many different settings. But if they’re serious, they’ll legislate to eliminate qualified immunity for government employees.

CHRIS CHRISTIE’S ATTACK ON LIBERTARIANS — “Tell It To The Widows” — would be more persuasive if the national security apparatus had prevented 9/11, when in fact the only effective response came from the self-organized passengers of Flight 93. The problem is that people who act “without orders, without hierarchy” aren’t simply useless to today’s political class — they’re viewed as a positive threat.

Meanwhile, 12 years later the greatly-expanded domestic spying apparatus couldn’t stop the Tsarnaevs even with help from the Russians. Christie, who purports to have expertise in this area, is going to have to have a better spiel on this if he wants to play at the national level.