Malaise is back. President Barack Obama’s situation is getting perilously close to President Jimmy Carter’s in 1979. Americans see little evidence of an economic recovery, more and more workers are giving up hope of ever finding a job, the burden of student loan debt — now larger than credit-card debt — is crushing the hopes of young people, the president’s signature achievement, healthcare reform, is broadly unpopular, our borders are overrun by migrant children, Iraq is falling apart, Syria and Ukraine are in turmoil and the president seems hapless and ineffectual. “Malaise” was the term used in 1979 to describe...