With 2 more years to go, let's not write off Obama

There are no signs that Americans' anger and frustration with their federal government will recede anytime soon. President Barack Obama's long, hot summer is likely to become his bleak, dreary winter.

The latest poll numbers, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, show that his job approval rating has sunk to 45 percent, the lowest of Obama's presidency to date. Even more devastating is the feeling by 62 percent of the public that the nation is headed in the wrong direction.

The unemployment rate of 10 percent is expected to stay stagnant and certainly won't be helped by thousands of newly unemployed workers in the Gulf.

News on the oil spill front remains grim. Even if relief wells succeed in stopping the flow of oil in August, so much economic and environmental damage has been done that the White House does not expect any relief from the political fallout.

Europe's dire economic situation is having a bad effect on America's slow recovery. Some numbers look better, but most voters don't feel optimistic.

June was the worst month ever for U.S. casualties in the nine-year war in Afghanistan. Even given the replacement of Gen. Stanley McChrystal with the highly respected strategic thinker Gen. David Petraeus, few think the war in a medieval country which defeated every nation that ever intervened there can be "won" any time soon, if at all. Even as the Taliban slithers back and intimidates Afghans who live in fear, poverty and ignorance, Americans are sending more sons and daughters there. We inevitably must ask what the endgame is.

If nation building is the goal — a monumental undertaking — we're talking at least another decade of American boots on the harsh ground in Afghanistan. But Obama has said he wants troops to start withdrawing next July.

Contributing mightily to the national frustration, Congress has become even more of an uncivil mess. The backbiting, nay-saying nastiness on Capitol Hill is as pervasive as it has ever been in recent history. There has been no cane throttling, as in the past, but it would not be surprising if fisticuffs broke out.

More Republicans than Democrats say they are enthusiastic about voting this November, making it all but inevitable Republicans will pick up seats in both the Senate and the House.

Although Democrats may hold their tenuous grasp on power, that is far from a given. Concrete legislative action seems even more unlikely in the months and years ahead.