Marble Composition

Scraping The Bottom?

He's taken the United States low. Lower than low. How far down can he slide?

According to a CBS poll, President Bush's overall approval rating stands at 34%. Yes, this news is a couple of days old, but I believe there is a trend developing here. All the horrible policy choices, all the decisions based on optics, the willful ignorance, the disconnection from reality, these things come with a price.

There were bold predictions from supporters that he would bounce back when he hit 36%, and that the State of the Union address would push him back into positive territory. That never happened, and when you run things in a slipshod manner for years, the bad news just keeps on coming.

When you're guiding philosophy is "government is bad", then there's no point in real governance. The whole enterprise becomes a vehicle for the grabbing power and funneling money to the people that got you where you are. In this case the oil and gas industries. How do you solve the problems of average Americans when you have zero belief in the system that might provide some aide? Answer: you don't. Compound that with this: you don't care either.

Kevin Drum over at the Washington Monthly writes:

Tis the winter of their discontent. But if I were them I wouldn't count on a glorious summer to follow. This has been their show for the past five years, and it's their show now. Jumping ship now just makes them look like cowards.

Kevin's a bit harsher than I would be, and I can be very harsh, but did I hear cowards? Was it cowards you speak of?

...we have not had a serious three-year effort to fight a war in Iraq as opposed to laying the preconditions for getting out.

That's from the chief cheerleader of the Iraq War from start to present. He's been pushing for it since '98, and now he's saying it was Rumsfeld's and the military's fault? Spare us Bill. It's been you're reason for being for eight years.

Joshua Micah Marshall steers us to this book review by Peter W. Galbraith:

Peter Galbraith: "In his State of the Union address, President Bush told his Iraq critics, 'Hindsight is not wisdom and second-guessing is not a strategy.' His comments are understandable. Much of the Iraq fiasco can be directly attributed to Bush's shortcomings as a leader. Having decided to invade Iraq, he failed to make sure there was adequate planning for the postwar period. He never settled bitter policy disputes among his principal aides over how postwar Iraq would be governed; and he allowed competing elements of his administration to pursue diametrically opposed policies at nearly the same time. He used jobs in the Coalition Provisional Authority to reward political loyalists who lacked professional competence, regional expertise, language skills, and, in some cases, common sense. Most serious of all, he conducted his Iraq policy with an arrogance not matched by political will or military power."

A pretty crisp and concise description of a man who has been an utter failure as a leader, in almost every respect unimaginable. Hubris, ignorance, inability to lead or make hard decisions. The list is as bleak as it is long.

This president will never get back to a 50% approval rating. Ever. This year will be worse than last year for him, and he'll drag GOP congressional members down with him in the mid-terms of '06. When you're a complete fraud, especially one that runs a country, there comes a time when the common folk tire of your bullshit. His presidency is effectively over. The American public may be slow on the uptake, but if there's one thing they do not like, it's this: liars.

This man, our president, is only starting to feel the effects of his failures. The full brunt is on it's way. Someday he'll realize how badly it went, but only after someone he really cares about has the gumpshen to notify of the truth directly.

posted by FuzzFinger @ 3/01/2006 08:12:00 PM