High overcast and a bit on the chilly side this early Wednesday on California’s north coast — heavy rain expected later today, on Thursday, too, and maybe, just maybe, some sunshine on Friday.
Last week, the forecast called for a full-sunshine day on Tuesday, now the fickle winds of weather has pushed it back to end of this week.

Also seemingly a bit capricious are Americans (via The Hill): ‘President Obama’s approval ratings are the highest since May 2013, according to a new CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday evening.’

(Illustration found here).

Despite the 48 percent approval rating, CNN noted: ‘Tuesday’s poll still reflected pervasive disaffection for Obama: 56 percent of respondents said the President has fallen short of their expectations, and 49 percent said his policies would take the country in the wrong direction.’
And although the president won a shitload of brownie points (and 2016 political ammo) in the immigration and Cuban fronts — both tied together in form, if not fashion — it’s still the economy, stupid!

In bolstering the likeness factor, the US economy grew at a sizzling 5 percent annual rate in the third quarter — the best upward leap since 2003, and coupling itself with 4.6 percent annual growth rate the previous three months, the money and cents of the situation makes for good, strong politics, and popularity.

And a wall in which to collide head-on — Republicans are having problems articulating the situation as the GOP has fallen into a deep-quiet crevice because, you know, stupid!
From MSNBC and the silence of the bat-shit-assholes:

So, what’s the Republican reaction to the latest GDP numbers, for example?
Nothing.
Note, I don’t mean “nothing” in a colloquial sense, as if they issued press releases that struck me as vapid and meaningless.
Rather, I mean “nothing” in a literal sense.
I went to the homepages for John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, the RNC, the NRSC, the NRCC, and the RGA. Collectively, they didn’t publish a single word about the striking economic growth.
So, I moved on to Twitter, checking the feeds for Boehner, McConnell, Reince Priebus, the RNC, the NRSC, the NRCC, and the RGA.
Again, literally nothing.
…
So in this sense, their eerie silence is hardly a surprise.
But it’s also unsustainable — as Obama walks with a spring in his step and takes credit for an economic “resurgence,” Republicans aren’t exactly in a position to change the subject (as if they have a subject they’d prefer to talk about right now).
And if the current trends continue – a big “if,” to be sure – Paul Waldman argues persuasively this morning that “it’ll be somewhere between difficult and impossible for a Republican to win the White House in 2016, since the state of the economy swamps every other issue in presidential campaigns.”

The vaulted midterm elections seemed really, really far back in history right about now.