OMG! Obama is doomed (again)

Oh no. Not another "Obama Is Doomed" prediction. Andrew Sullivan flagged this handwrung piece by John Sides:

"The new economic numbers and the trend in presidential approval [he's down to 40%] bring us to this point: Barack Obama is on the cusp of becoming the underdog in the 2012 election. The outcome of the debt ceiling debate will not change this. In fact, the outcome is likely to make things even worse for Obama. A default would likely create economic chaos, and any deal will cut government spending, which seems likely to reduce economic growth further. [...] Can Obama successfully compete with a Republican who campaigns on “jobs, jobs, jobs” while the economy is in a near-recession? [...] But finding the issue that neutralizes a weak economy is hard. Neither Carter nor Bush could. I don’t know whether Obama will."

Oh please. Yes, Obama has hit a new approval low. But Mr. Sides failed to mention that everyone else is polling worse. Moreover, is it really necessary to restate that trend polls taken a year before Election Day are as meaningful as predicting the Rapture would occur (this time for sure) on May 21, 2011 at 6pm ET? We're still here. Yes, a default might create Armageddon. So would an alien invasion. Neither is going to happen. As for the match-up with the 12-foot tall Republican, Abe Lincoln is sitting this one out. At worst we're talking about Romney, the insomnia candidate who can't find a consistent position on the issues with GPS and Google Maps. If Obama faces anybody else, Obama wins in a landslide. Full stop. To paraphrase Bill Maher, if these "Obama Is Doomed" predictions were made of uranium, they could power the planet. But in reality, they're just hot air.