With the favorability rating rebound of George W. Bush to 52%, new polling indicates that Barack Obama is officially America's worst modern, living president – a title richly deserved.  Given Mr. Obama's soup-to-nuts domestic and international failures (well-known to anyone who utilizes his biology above the neck), it is miraculous that his underwater approval rating at a tepid at 49% is that high.  Indeed, it is expression of the unfortunate millennial triumph of mediocrity and "lowered expectations" that make people famous à la Paris Hilton – not for talent, but for style over substance.  It was this empty-suit shiny newness that brought Mr. Obama to the presidency and, to a lesser extent, keeps him there now.

In retrospect, the former Georgian peanut farmer, governor, and U.S. president can officially stop white-knuckling it.  No one will remember an economy mired in a lasting malaise of double-digit inflation and interest rates, an energy crisis resulting in long gas station lines, and Iranian Islamic revolutionaries kidnapping of 66 American hostages.  Mr. Carter's then-monumental failures of leadership are political "small potatoes" compared to those of the current occupant of the Oval Office.  In time's yellowing rearview mirror, Democrat Jimmy Carter – who by most accounts is considered well-intentioned though completely incompetent – now shows a favorable rating at 56 percent.  Today, no doubt, Mr. Carter is breathing a great sigh of relief at the American public's generous and forgiving assessment. 

No, all of those unfortunate events of the late 1970s have been completely overshadowed by Mr. Obama, who has gotten away with imperialism and corruption Richard Nixon could scarcely have dreamt of.  From the golf course, this presidential lame-duck desperate both for continued relevancy six years into office and a lasting legacy will have the latter, but not the one he wants.  In the dispassionate view of history immune to political spin, Mr. Obama's ultra-Constitutional acts, anti-American sentiments, and anti-capitalist policies speak stentorian: he has gravely endangered America and made the world a much more dangerous place.