REUTERS: “A spree of bad news — market gyrations, fears of a double-dip recession, stubborn unemployment and fallout from a debt deal — has shaken confidence in President Barack Obama’s leadership and could cloud his chances for winning re-election.”

That’s going to be the new spin: Obama’s the victim of “bad luck.” There’s a sense in which it’s true, of course. . . .

Plus, this quote: “I think Americans would like to re-elect the first African American president, but ultimately the presidential election is a referendum on performance.” Yeah, that’s going to be his biggest problem.

UPDATE: Reader David Horwich writes: “It seems clear that he can’t run on his own record, so his latest tactic seems to be that he’s going to take a page out of, I think, Truman’s book and run against Congress. That’ll work: he ceded every policy decision to them, so I guess it’ll be easy to blame them!”