Is Obama "simply not up to the job?"

Beyond the irony of journalists urging more spin from a politician, the really remarkable fact is that none dare consider the possibility that Obama is simply not up to the job. It is a scary thought, but evidence of consistent failure is overwhelming.

The high point of his presidency came the day he took office. Since then, a majority of Americans has opposed virtually all his major policies and he has prevailed on several only because of large Democratic congressional advantages.

The problems are growing, but he's not. If he were, we'd see green shoots of improvement.

Instead, the White House is going backwards at home and abroad and shows no ability to adjust. Like a cult, it interprets every reversal as proof of its righteousness and of others' malignancy.

What started out as a whiff of rookie incompetence has become a suffocating odor. It's hard to find a single area where Obama's policies are a convincing success.

Friday's poor jobs report, showing only 41,000 private-sector jobs added in May, helped send the stock market into a tailspin. Equally important to the actual number was the expectation it would be as high as 190,000.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden fed the expectation by predicting the report would be a good one. It was -- if you count Census jobs. There were 400,000 of those, or about 90 percent of the total, suggesting Obama and Biden see no difference between a temporary government job and a permanent, private one.