These numbers were gathered before today’s massacre at the airport, of course. Once that’s priced in, they’ll get worse.

Condolences to the White House and lefty pundits on this data despite all of their hard work lately trying to convince Americans that ackshually this evacuation is a smash success.

If the Democratic commentariat is losing its own party on this question by a two-to-one margin, they have a problem:

By 68% to 16%, Americans say the Afghanistan evacuation was handled badly.

% who say the evacuation was handled badly

Democrats – 55%
Independents – 76%
Republicans – 84%https://t.co/NxhEkoeyqJ pic.twitter.com/ETcB4MKzFH

— YouGov America (@YouGovAmerica) August 26, 2021

Last week approval of Biden’s handling of the process was at a more or less even 32/42. This week it’s ballooned to 33/51, with 12-point gains in disapproval among both independents and Republicans. Interestingly, disapproval of Biden’s performance dropped slightly among veterans, from 35/57 to 36/53. I’m guessing that was a reflection of the fact that, before today, no American troops had been killed in the evacuation and thousands of people were getting out, albeit far fewer than everyone hoped.

As word spreads that four Marines were killed in this morning’s bombing and the remainder of the evacuation is being canceled, presumably that opinion will begin to change.

As for who the American public blames for the fiasco, it’s no contest. Even a sizable minority of Democrats can’t resist holding the president responsible:

69% of US adults who say the evacuation from Afghanistan has been handled badly blame President Joe Biden.https://t.co/vxdiNRzzi9 pic.twitter.com/GAyVNRjsEn

— YouGov America (@YouGovAmerica) August 26, 2021

Here at home it’s the Biden administration’s reputation that’s been damaged. Abroad it’s the entire country’s. Let me remind you again of the most embarrassingly false claim from last Friday’s presidential press conference:

Following criticism of the United States' conduct in their withdrawal, Biden says he has seen "no question of our credibility from our allies around the world." https://t.co/nkdo355FUf pic.twitter.com/N2DHg3KTqX

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 20, 2021

Morning Consult grasps the reality:

NEW: America's reputation has taken a hit in a number of foreign countries – especially the United Kingdom – over the past several days of chaos since the fall of Kabul. https://t.co/x9Ms0sEoFt pic.twitter.com/Sh11Mzl0HG

— Eli Yokley (@eyokley) August 26, 2021

Down everywhere — well, almost everywhere. Canadians and the French are *more* likely to view the U.S. favorably this week. Are they that eager to end the war that a half-assed bugout with tens of thousands of natives left behind to endure murder, rape, and enslavement is a net positive?

Some of the British backlash may be a case of deflection, meanwhile. The UK resents that it’s forced to rely on the U.S. military to guarantee security at the airport, which means when we pull out they have no choice but to follow suit. They’re unable to avoid participating in this western humiliation because we’re the imperial power now, not them, which means they’re compelled to abandon British nationals and Afghan friendlies stuck in Afghanistan. They blame us for it rather than their own inability to assert their will militarily over the Taliban.

But that doesn’t mean they’re wrong to think less of us after this debacle. How could anyone except a strongly partisan Democrat watch the United States take orders from the Taliban and agree to withdraw before every American is out and not consider it an unforgivable blow to national prestige?

By the way, the effort on the left to rehab even this morning’s atrocity as a foreseeable and not particularly pricey cost of withdrawal has already begun:

20 YEARS- FYI there have been terrorist suicide bombers killing civilians nearly DAILY in Afghanistan. This ain’t new. It’s why we are leaving. #DealWithIt

— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) August 26, 2021

As context, this is the volume of terrorist attacks that happened in Kabul in 2020. pic.twitter.com/k3z1VZ2DSi

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 26, 2021

The massacre at the airport means one of two things. Either the Taliban’s security inside Kabul is porous, in which case Afghanistan will be bloody even after we’re out, or the Taliban knew about the bombing operation and let it proceed, in which case international terror basesd will be sprouting again inside the country even sooner than we feared.

I’ll leave you with this. We’ve officially arrived at the “so bad it’s unspinnable” phase of this sh*tshow.

Update from @StateDept:
No press briefing today pic.twitter.com/hGmuvVmQVi

— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) August 26, 2021