NATIONAL JOURNAL: How the Scandals Turned Obama Into a Dour Scold.

Even from 2,300 miles away and across the ideological gap that separates him from President Obama, Republican Ken Khachigian can recognize the signs and even feel a little empathy for the Democratic incumbent at perhaps the lowest point of his presidency. Khachigian was there at the White House from 1970 to 1974 to watch another president cope with scandal.

“You feel besieged. You feel defensive, especially when things are coming in from all directions,” he told National Journal from his Southern California home, recalling his days watching President Nixon deal with Watergate. “You do feel embattled. And it can distort, to some extent, your perception and your ability to get things done.” . . .

It is in that regard that Obama has faltered in the days since the story of the misdeeds at the IRS broke, cranking up the political and media intensity. One can argue whether the White House was too slow to respond and stanch the bleeding. In some ways, that is a question for lawyers, who can debate how cautious a president must be in responding to such allegations. But it is hard to disagree that this president has lost his footing in the way he presents himself.

Optimism is a vastly underrated component of a successful presidency. Voters tend to reject presidents who are dour or who talk of malaise. They reward those like Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, who offer hope and grand promises. Obama must know this. It was in many ways the basis of his improbable campaign success in 2008. And even today, beset by controversies and investigations, he pays it rhetorical service. But the message is decidedly mixed.

In truth, Obama’s never been that much of an optimist. He’s been more about demonization and payback. It just shows more now.

UPDATE: Bob Woodward Compares Benghazi To Watergate.

HEH: “We’ve had bras hanging here for 45 years. It’s been a charm of the place. So here comes this gal…”

SURE, AMMUNITION’S HARD TO FIND, but you can always restock your kitchen arsenal.

Also at Amazon, Up to 60% Off Select Kensington Laptop and Tablet Accessories. Cases, iPad keyboards, and more.

AT PJTV, Michelle Fields interviews Elon Musk about SpaceX and the future of humanity. “A future where we’re a spacefaring civilization is a far more exciting future than one where we’re not.” Plus, they’re hiring interns!

ON THE TONIGHT SHOW LAST NIGHT, Mitt Romney.

BETTER TEN YEARS LATE THAN NEVER. MARC LAMONT HILL NOTICES SOMETHING: “We have a permanent warfare state and liberals say nothing. Sometimes, it feels like the Left wasn’t anti-war. It was just anti-Bush.” Ya think?

DEMOCRATIC SEN. MAX BAUCUS PREDICTS THE IRS SCANDAL WILL GROW: “I have a hunch that a lot more is going to come out, frankly. It’s broader than the current focus.”

MICHAEL BARONE: Benghazi and IRS Targeting: Politics by Other Means. “What do the Benghazi cover-up and the IRS scandal have in common? They were both about winning elections, under false pretenses.”

GOT THE ADVANCE COPIES OF THE INSTA-WIFE’S NEW BOOK, Men On Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood and the American Dream — and Why It Matters. She’s pleased as punch. (Bumped).

I FIND THAT LAWYERS ARE OFTEN INSUFFICIENTLY CAREFUL WITH THESE THINGS: When A Demand Letter Crosses The Line Into Extortion. In addition, sending letters that misrepresent the law may constitute fraud, or a breach of attorney ethics.

JAMES TARANTO: President Asterisk: Why the Obama IRS scandal may be worse than “a cancer on the presidency.” “No one can deny that Lance Armstrong and Mark McGwire were highly skilled athletes. But their accomplishments are forever tainted by their use of banned performance-enhancing drugs. The use of the Internal Revenue Service’s coercive power to suppress dissent against Obama is the political equivalent of steroids. The history books should record Obama’s re-election with an asterisk to indicate that it was achieved with the help of illicit means. . . . One thing we have learned from the IRS scandal is that sports journalists are morally superior to political journalists. Whereas the former understand that cheating is an assault on the basic integrity of the sport, the latter all too often treat it as if it were just part of the game.”

I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: NASA Announces Brightest Lunar Explosion Ever Recorded. “A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at the right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday. NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the moon in the eight year history of the monitoring program. Some 300 lunar impact events have been logged over the years but this latest impact, from March 17, is considered many orders of magnitude brighter than anything else observed.”

Related: Dark, massive asteroid to fly by Earth on May 31. “It’s 1.7 miles long. Its surface is covered in a sticky black substance similar to the gunk at the bottom of a barbecue. If it impacted Earth it would probably result in global extinction. Good thing it is just making a flyby.”

RULES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Weiner’s Wife Didn’t Disclose Consulting Work She Did While Serving in State Dept. “The State Department, under Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, created an arrangement for her longtime aide and confidante Huma Abedin to work for private clients as a consultant while serving as a top adviser in the department. . . . Ms. Abedin declined a request for an interview, but the picture that emerges from interviews and records suggests a situation where the lines were blurred between Ms. Abedin’s work in the high echelons of one of the government’s most sensitive executive departments and her role as a Clinton family insider.”

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Lying King. “Lying isn’t free. One of the reasons that the United States has remained the last refuge for money fleeing instability abroad is that those investors trust its institutions. They believed — reasonably until now — that in America the rule of law reigned supreme. They thought — until the administration cast the question into serious doubt — that America was not the banana republic that the possessors of those fortunes sought to flee. That’s why the money comes to America and not, let us say, to the Congo.”

Yes, I said something similar back in 2009, but apparently it didn’t take hold with our political class. But, then, the political class will do whatever it can get away with. These days, it’s been able to get away with more.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: Durbin Asked IRS’ Shulman to Probe ‘Several’ Conservative 501(c)(4) Groups in 2010. “Democrats’ background on the issue underscores their interest in turning the current scandal into a campaign finance narrative.”

HEY, GUYS: COME TO TENNESSEE! Beretta Announces Plans to Move After Maryland Gov. Signs Bill.

BRET EASTON ELLIS is not into the PC.

DEAR CLASS OF ’13: You’ve Been Scammed.

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EVEN A FLATWORM IS SMART ENOUGH TO TURN AWAY FROM PAIN: Piers Morgan: Say, I guess government can become tyrannical after all. But the Obama-pain is just beginning.

CHANGE: Women in NYC now free to go topless in public.

STUPID JOHN-BIRCH-SOCIETY WINGNUTS: Portland Continues To Fight Fluoridated Water.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 6 Ways Sex Makes You More Attractive.

VIA DAVE KOPEL: Video: Press Conference: 54 Colorado Sheriffs File Suit Against Anti-Gun Bills.

ART: David Emery’s best photograph: an Andalucian brothel. “I drove around every road in Andalucia, asking passers-by: ‘Are there any brothels near here?'”