His recent bounce is a reminder that a president who has lost control of the House still has vast influence, not least through the bully pulpit, which Mr Obama has started lately to use to better effect.
"I've started saying lately that New York State does not have a budget process, because whatever you think the process is, next year you're wrong," said Frank J. Mauro, director of the Fiscal Policy Group, which studies state finances.
And that's how I've started to think lately".
The most interesting and exciting thing I've started to see lately is how some of the mentorship is spilling over into positive applications in my personal life as well.
And that's how I've started to think lately". The morning after the show came news that yet another of New York Fashion Week's marquee designers, Joseph Altuzarra, will show in Paris.
And lately, I've started to notice a disturbing trend.
Lately I've started working on my New Year's fitness goals.
But lately I've started to wish that there wasn't such a fruit as the banana, or, more accurately, that people didn't eat bananas in public.
In fact, lately I've started to have a truly depressing thought: Bad as Japan's policy has been, it's possible that the United States will do even worse.
I admire her enormously for having the courage to do something positive, but lately I've started to wonder if being an outspoken fiftysomething woman looking for work puts another black mark against us in addition to the fact that we are older.
But lately I've started thinking that Congress should seriously limit their use.
