Things Are Looking Up for the President

Dana Milbank:

Obama suddenly seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit, and no wonder: He just might be the luckiest man alive.

At the last possible moment to save his reelection, the economy is beginning to hum, as evidenced by Friday’s jobs report. And Obama’s Republican opponents are shaping up to be as formidable as, well, marshmallows. While Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are making each other unelectable, the president is singing Al Green, congratulating Super Bowl winners, playing with science projects, raising obscene amounts of campaign cash and watching his poll numbers soar.

According to historical patterns, the high unemployment rate and slow economic growth should combine to doom Obama. But historical patterns do not take into account an opponent who says he enjoys firing people. This week’s Washington Post-ABC News poll showed Obama with a nine-point lead over Romney and a 15-point lead over Gingrich. And political handicapper Charlie Cook wrote Tuesday about a fundamental shift in Obama’s prospects, as the GOP position retreats from “cautiously optimistic” to “uncertainty.”

Santorum may have been the big Republican winner yesterday, but so far this has been Obama's year.