The Gallup Organization on Tuesday headlined a story about rising poll numbers for Barack Obama even as their daily tracking showed Obama's numbers dropping.

The article, headlined "Obama's Job Approval Rating Reaches 49% Over Weekend," reports:

"Obama's job approval rating rose to 49% in the three-day period from Friday through Sunday, building on an upward trend that began the middle of last week. Obama's current approval rating is the highest measured since early February, and before that the highest since June 2011."

The problem is that Gallup's daily tracking for Tuesday showed Obama's rating at 47%, down two points from the supposed "upward trend," and Obama's disapproval rating up 3%.

In other disquieting numbers for the O Team, Gallup's daily tracking says that consumer's economic confidence dropped the same 2%, reaffirming that Obama's fate is closely tied to the economy's.

And unsettling for Obama on the foreign affairs front, Americans' confidence in the military is down under Obama. "Fifty-four percent of Americans believe the United States is the No. 1 military power in the world, fewer than what Gallup has typically found." And down precipitously from when Obama took office.

-William Tate is an award-winning journalist and author