Last week cannot have been a good one for United States President Barack Obama.
The war for the allied forces in Afghanistan is worsening by the day and there cannot be much confidence in the corrupt president the US props up in its battle against the Taliban.
At home, the domestic political challenges are great at a time when the world's largest economy is in deep trouble.
And to cap his first year in office, local political setbacks have sent a strong warning signal that the approval and appeal of a new face after President George W.
Bush's administration has worn thin.
He came to power largely on the basis of electoral disgust with the Bush years, liberal hopes and middle-class expectations.
It may well be that the recession is over - although those made homeless by foreclosures will not think so - but 10% of America's workforce remains unemployed and in some major centres, including New York, the figure is much higher.
There is now open questioning from some of President Obama's most committed supporters whether his poor decision-making and inexperience will be fatal liabilities.
His record by no means matches the rhetoric and assurance of the immediate post-election period.
He has made little progress reforming the health care system by creating a very costly universal health insurance scheme; restricting carbon emissions has been delayed; rebuilding support for US foreign policy that was so badly damaged in the Bush years is producing limited results.
He removed the US missile defence system in eastern Europe in the expectation that Russia would respond in kind but that expectation remains unfulfilled; and even Mr Obama's personal intervention failed to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago.
The economy is looking more like the proverbial basket case every day with a projected cumulative deficit for the next 10 years now up to $9 trillion, a debt that will have to be paid.
The higher taxes considered a certainty will cause further negativity.
It also says something about his poor judgement that he has wasted time and energy attacking critical media outlets, such as Fox News Channel and the radio host, Rush Limbaugh.
This week's local poll results - especially the Republicans' gains of two state governorships - must be seen as a weakening of Democratic support and perhaps a portent of further trouble next year, when elections will be held for the Congress, a third of the Senate, and many state governorships.
Progress on restoration of the economy and a return to confidence among America's working and middle classes might be the lifelines Mr Obama by some miracle can produce.
He may also be helped by the fact that the Republican Party itself remains in trouble, though it is not as despondent as it was a year ago.
Today the serious battle continues between moderates and conservatives - a post-election division not unfamiliar in this country - but a sniff of electoral victory will dilute it.
The president was elected by a broad spectrum of support, especially of the so-called "floating" or independent voters who actually determine election outcomes.
Last week's polls indicate many either deserted the Democrats for the Republicans or simply stayed at home.
It must be significant that even last minute appearances by the president in several centres failed to sway voters.
Mr Obama does have a time advantage with another three years in office before the next presidential election, but he will be able to achieve little if he loses further influence in the Senate and Congress or does not show progress across several of the endeavours he committed to last year.
There is some sympathy for the situation he faces, much of which was not of his making, and he has been swift to exploit it by noting that two of his most intractable problems - the state of the economy and the war in Afghanistan - were inherited from his predecessor.
Voters with long memories will inevitably be wondering whether history is about to repeat itself, that President Obama will face the same fate as his Democratic predecessor, Lyndon Johnson: defeat brought about by sinking further into the morass of an unwinnable foreign war and proposing to a sceptical Congress an impossibly high hurdle of welfare reform.
