The president’s approval ratings have been steadily falling for quite some time now. So are you really surprised?

President Obama's approval rating tumbled to a record low as Americans reacted to the government's sweeping surveillance programs and other scandals, according to the latest IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index. The Presidential Leadership Index fell to 43.2 from 48.9 a month earlier. The 11.7% slide was the worst since Obama took office. For the fourth straight month, the reading stood below 50, signaling disapproval. Revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance of Americans' phone records and Internet activity dominated recent headlines. Meanwhile, more news came out about the IRS' targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. "Each day that passes there's a new mention of these things,"TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence President Raghavan Mayur said of the NSA, IRS and other scandals."They seem to kind of fester. They don't seem to go away."

And I don’t think they will go away anytime soon -- even though the president’s trip to Africa probably helped divert some attention from the numerous scandals plaguing his administration. Of course, the president has a known tendency to plead ignorance when things go awry -- which is why Thomas Sowell hilariously nicknamed him the “innocent-bystander-in-chief.” But Americans are angry about what’s going on in his administration -- not to mention beginning to struggle with the added costs and burdens of his signature legislative achievement. Perhaps, then, it’s a good thing the president is out of the country at this point in time -- at least for his own sake.

Anyway, here’s the accompanying graph showing just how much the president’s approval ratings have slipped in recent months. In short, it’s been pretty much all downhill since his re-election: