Who knows, maybe Post columnist Dana Milbank lobbied editors and convinced them not to emphasize Obama's strong approval rating in the latest Post/ABC News poll. After all, it was Milbank who recently announced the president had just suffered the worst week of his presidency. Or maybe it was Post columnist David Broder, who just wrote that Obama was in danger of morphing into a Jimmy Carter-like figure. Or maybe it was Post scribe Dan Balz who appeared on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday and announced that everything that could go wrong for Obama, had gone wrong for Obama.

Except uh-oh, somebody forgot to tell the voters. So maybe that's why the Post did its best to completely ignore the fact that its own polling uncovered good news for Obama.

Fact: According to Post survey results, which were released Tuesday, Obama's approval rating is up, slightly, from six months ago. That's right, it's up.

Despite the avalanche of recent media pronouncements that Obama's presidency is crumbling (mostly, we're told, due to the BP oil disaster), and that he's just not connecting with Americans (i.e. cue the emotion), the president's approval rating climbed to 52 percent, up from 50 percent in December.

So how did the Post newsroom deal with that rather awkward revelation? In the write-up of the polling data, Post readers had to venture down to the 17th paragraph for this nugget: [emphasis added]

Obama's overall approval ratings have remained fairly steady. More than half of those surveyed, 52 percent, say they approve of the way he is handling his job, and for the first time since last fall, half approve of how he is dealing with the economy.

There are new vulnerabilities in public perceptions of the president, however, that may provide fresh openings for Republicans to reframe the debate.

“Steady”? Well actually, Obama's approval rating has gone up since December, albeit within the margin of error of the Post poll. But did you notice how quickly the Post dismissed Obama's continued strong approval rating and then turned its attention to examining ways Republicans might exploit “fresh openings.” (Context: Ronald Reagan would have been thrilled to have 52 percent approval rating at this point in his first term. And of course, George Bush left office with an approval rating half of that.)

Amazing.

Post columnists and staffers have been working overtime this month trying to paint a picture of an Obama White House in free fall. But when its own polling not only failed to back up that claim, but actually rebuffed that GOP-friendly narrative, the Post did it's best to ignore the facts.

Behold your liberal media.