Geoff Arnold

I am guessing alcohol, or maybe he used to have a better speech writer.

Heh. You guys just keep thinking Bush is stupid and incompetent, and we'll have Congress and the presidency for the rest of my lifetime.

And my people tend to be quite long lived.

Which "you guys" is this?

Here's an interesting analysis of recent polling data. How exactly is this going to help the Republicans in the future?

Bush’s character ratings. This shift in the perception of Bush is illustrated most vividly by recent results on Bush’s character. In the Newsweek poll, there is now a 49-47 split on whether Bush does or does not have “strong leadership qualities”, down from a 63-34 spread in late October of last year. In addition, there is now a 49-46 split on whether Bush is “intelligent and well-informed”, down from 59-37 last October, and a 46-51 split against Bush on whether can be trusted to “make the right decisions during an international crisis”, down from a 54-42 judgement in his favor last October. In addition, just 50 percent now say he is “honest and ethical”, 45 percent say he can be trusted to “make the right decisions during a domestic crisis” and 42 percent think he “cares about people like you”.

The poll also contains the following startling finding: The public is now much more likely to think that history will judge Bush a below average president (42 percent) than to think history will see him as above average (19 percent). Wow. Remember when Republicans were talking about putting Bush on Mount Rushmore? I don’t think that’s on anymore.

Other polls have similar findings on the sharp decline in perception of Bush’s character. In the CBS News poll, 48 percent now say Bush has “strong qualities of leadership”, compared to 49 percent who say he does not. That compares to a whopping 64-34 judgement in Bush’s favor a year ago. Similarly, in the WP/ABC poll, there is now a 50-50 split on whether Bush is a strong leader, down from 62-37 in his favor in May of 2004 and a 49-49 split on whether Bush can be trusted in a crisis, down from 60-39 in May, 2004. Finally, just 38 percent now say Bush does “understand the problems of people like you”, compared to 61 percent who say he doesn’t.

So: the public now has a negative view of Bush’s job performance overall and in every area, including handling the war on terror, and has lost faith in Bush’s special qualities as a leader. What’s left? Not much. The bond between Bush and the American people has clearly been broken, perhaps irrevocably. An administration that was once defined in the public eye with competence and patriotism is now associated with cronyism and incompetence of the worst sort.

Oops, sorry. I omitted the source for the last quote:

http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/donkeyrising/archives/001290.php

Tom Tomorrow has the real answer!
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2005/09/19/tomo/index1.html

You and Susan (local color: out here on the plains, "guys" is a generic.)

I'm just pointing out that W is such an incompetent moron that he's won two elections, the Republicans have got a nearly unassailable majority in Congress, Donna Brazile is finding herself agreeing with him in print, the North Koreans are agreeing to a disarmament scheme in which they don't get goodies unless they show actual results, the President of Pakistan is making diplomatic contacts with Israel, Afghanistan has had another successful election in which the "mighty" Talib cult has turned out to be effectively impotent, direct reports from US soldiers in Iraq are increasingly hopeful, Syria has been forced to withdraw from Lebanon, Libya has rolled on their WMD program, Andrea Merkel just beat Schroeder, Roberts is about to be elevated to be Chief justice practically by acclimation (which will set up another big pitfall trap for the opposition on the next nominee), and the LDP just kicked ass in Japan (remember Koizumi was a very strong Bush ally).

Even the argument that Bush and/or FEMA was incompetent in New Orleans neglects a bunch of little details like who was responsible for what --- and that while Bush's approval isn't good, Blanco's and Nagin is lots worse.

So fine --- Bush is an incompetent halfwit.

But he keeps winning.

What does this tell us?

Good grief, where to start? In no particular order:

(1) The elections in Japan and Germany have absolutely nothing to do with W. From the point of view of most countries, all American politicians are equally right-wing and incomprehensible. Only an American jingoist would think differently....

(2) N. Korea's movement is everything to do with China and nothing to do with the US.

(3) Yes, the Afghan elections went off well, and more women than men voted in most places. But turnout was down 20% compared with the presidential elections. Don't get cocky....

(4) Your comments on Iraq are bizarre. Many districts of Baghdad are in the hands of insurgents. The US body count may have stabilized, but Iraqi deaths are increasing. Most reconstruction work is grinding to a halt because they've run out of money. Against these facts, the anecdotal hopefulness of a few soldiers count for little.

(5) Are you crediting W with successfully arranging the death of Rehnquist? He can't claim any credit here.

And the elephant in the corner of the room that no Republican is willing to admit to is the horrendous budget and trade deficits. The fiscal recklessness of Bush and the congressional Republicans makes sense only if you believe that The Rapture is coming some time between now and 2008.....