The President's political travel is going to get blamed (and probably rightly) for a share of this downturn.

Another cause for the increase in alienation and cynicism is a feeling that too many policy decisions that affect individuals have been taken out of any system that has accountability or that they can influence.

Most of the things that need to be said about the President are things he can't say himself.

Look at the declining television coverage. Look at the declining voting rate. Economics and economic news is what moves the country now, not politics.

This is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but I think it once again points out how very important style of leadership, that is the way he does what he does, is to his perception.

This has resulted in more and more people becoming inner-directed and having as their only goal, getting as much as they can get out of the system and putting as little into it as possible

People just automatically say 'If this guy is George and Barbara Bush's son, we don't have any question about those personal qualities that we were fooled on by Clinton.'