Read them and tell the Republicans to take a flying leap.
I'm sure more than a few at the White House were thinking that when they heard this.
The president's poll numbers are up--or at worst barely changed.
Down two points in the latest Fox News poll.
Up two points in the latest CNN poll, so a mixed read on a so-far, very mixed up mess!
But clearly, early-on, not much sticking to the president just yet.
I say, yet, because history teaches us such crises tend to be cumulative.
Just ask Richard Nixon, who weathered a year of non-stop Watergate break-in coverage--
Including a landslide re-election, before his numbers started turning, and he was going.
But it didn't happen right away--
More like a drip-drip of devastating headlines that eventually wouldn't go away.
Like the hero-to-zero polling that hit Barack Obama's predecessor, when he was flying high in the polls--
Right after we took down Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Then saw it all evaporate when we got bogged down in Iraq.
Pollsters tell me crises take a while to register--that is, unless, of course, they have something to register.
Ronald Reagan survived initial Iran-Contra scrutiny until his poll numbers tumbled too--only to revive.
I guess it depends on whether the scandal is big enough, or serious enough.
Or in this president's case, any one of several scandals hitting the public registers enough.
We'll see.
This much I know.
Polls now are like snap shots.
Once snapped. Then shut.
Before more news snaps.
And folks decide whether a president's agenda or presidency itself is forever shut.
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