Barack Obama's Positively Awful Week

It's been a tough week for Barack Obama and Friday can't come fast enough.

Iran says it will sit down with its long-time foe at a U.S.-sponsored conference on Afghanistan. Financial markets at home and around the world are rebounding and leading domestic economic indicators like factory orders and home-sale prices are showing some signs of life. The most damaging thing his critics can say about his second prime-time news conference, watched by some 40 million people, is that he was too professorial. And billions of dollars of stimulus money are flowing into states and cities with the promise of jobs creation and infrastructure improvements.

Worse yet, there is a feeling in some quarters if the bottom has not been reached in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression then perhaps the bottom is finally coming into view.

Then there is the fact that in a mere two months Obama has been more accessible -- doing real town-hall meetings, going online to answer questions and out in public hanging with ordinary folks-- than his predecessor was in eight years.

I ask you: How bad can it get?

Photograph by Molly Riley/Reuters