http://news.yahoo.com/rough-start-brazilian-leader-rousseff-211745014.htmlBy BRADLEY BROOKS - Associated Press | AP – 23 mins ago....tweet0ShareEmailPrint......SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff faced a tough challenge in simply having to follow in the footsteps of her wildly popular political mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
But her political path during her first seven months in office has been rockier still, having seen scandals push two of her Cabinet ministers from their posts and this week being forced to fire her defense minister after he made a series of acerbic comments that seemed to openly challenge her leadership.
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The latest official to exit was Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, who created his own downfall by recently saying he voted for Rousseff's opponent in last year's election, that he was surrounded by "idiots" in her government and by insulting two other ministers this week.
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In the most recent nationwide opinion poll on her presidency, 49 percent of Brazilians rated her as doing a "good" job. That poll was carried out in June, before the fall of Jobim but after the potentially more damaging episode with Palocci, who was viewed as Rousseff's right-hand man.