Shocking.

Americans are now pretty evenly divided about whether they would rather have Barack Obama or George W. Bush in the White House. 48% prefer Obama while 46% say they would rather have the old President back.

I’m sorry, I don’t think this can just be chalked up to the lingering high unemployment. This has to be the result of Obama not consistently and forcefully distancing himself from Bush — both rhetorically and through policy. I just don’t see how else you read those results.

If you campaign on CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN, and you’re replacing the most unpopular President in modern times, you’d damn well better deliver sufficiently believable change — while making it clear on a regular basis exactly how you’re doing so.

Yeah, okay — McCain got 46% of the vote, and these are hyper-partisan times. Fine.

But this would be like in 1934, nearly half the country longing for the return of Hoover — if Hoover had lost two wars on top of driving the country’s economy off the cliff.

Depressing.