Shocking AP Headline: 'After Year, Hope Turns Into Disappointment'

Given the love affair media had with presidential candidate Barack Obama, this is a headline I'm sure few people could have imagined they'd see as the first anniversary of his inauguration approached:

After Year, Hope Turns Into Disappointment

Maybe even more surprising, the contents of this Associated Press piece were just as pessimistic about the man so-called journalists once gushed and fawned over like teenyboppers in the presence of a rock star (h/t Glenn Reynolds):

Forget "can," "change" and, above all, "hope." The new word echoing in the blogosphere and beyond as Obama enters Year Two: disappointment.

The polls have shown a wide decline in Americans' approval of Obama since he first took office last Jan. 20. In fact, according to the latest Gallup Poll, he entered his second year with one of the lowest approval ratings of any president in the last half-century (50 percent of Americans approved of his job performance at the first of January, and 44 percent disapproved.) [...]

[S]ome of the truest Obama believers are among the most letdown.

Consider the anti-war activist upset that Obama has yet to end the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or the socially liberal surgeon disillusioned with what he sees as a weak stab at health care reform. Or Boyd, "50-ish" and out of work a year now, bitter that the man he backed hasn't delivered more jobs.

They speak of disappointment in the state of our union. Disappointment in themselves for expecting so much so fast. Disappointment, especially, in the man who, as Boyd says, "raised the bar so high."

Yes -- this really is an AP piece.

How times have changed. 

Is this indicative of the kind of media reports we'll be seeing this week, or is this an outlier?

Stay tuned.