Little Lost President

by DemFromCT

Ron Fournier dissects Bush's problems that led the American people to declare his Presidency a failure:

The public's loss of faith in Bush goes back many months to the early weeks of the Iraq war, when nearly two-thirds of Americans found him trustworthy. Less than half felt that way in October, according to the Pew Research Center.

One issue is the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, Bush's chief rationale for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Rather than admit a mistake, Bush emphasized other reasons for war.

The president's credibility and competency took another hit when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. The sluggish relief effort left some wondering whether a government that failed to provide food and water to refugees could protect them from terrorism.

Bush accepted responsibility, but the belated and reluctant nature of his mea culpa did not go over well with Americans who like their leaders to be buck-stops-here accountable. [emphasis mine]

This stikes at the heart of why Reid's move to change the subject back to Iraq and the failures of the WH to properly assess intelligence data is so powerful.

Credibility is a new and dangerous issue for Bush.

"He's always been known for straight talk and blunt talk _ never shied away from that. And that just hasn't been there recently," said GOP consultant John Truscott of Michigan. He and DePino said they expect Bush to turn things around.

Of course it's dangerous. He promised to fire the Plame leakers but hasn't fired Rove, something not lost on Reid, who seems to be in the middle of WH agita. For a straight-talking cowboy, Bush is doing a whole lot of shucking and jiving, ain't he? And he's looking mighty lost not just to Republican allies, but to the American people.

That's why Bush keeps trying to change the subject. The subject is the war. It's always been about the war. Plame leaks are about the war. Bush's credibility loss is over the war. And Bush is going to learn that you can't just change the subject on this.

Comments

[DemFromCT]

What Bush needs to do is fire rove, get new staff and change direction. but having only the VP's office indicted doesn't force the issue, and I don't see Bush being capable of making those changes on his own.
That would require initiative, integrity, and all the other traits generally ascribed to 'leaders'.

He ain't got it. And he ain't gonna get it anytime soon.

[&y]

Hear!

Plamegate? Traitorgate? Nigergate? Etcgate? Naaah. If it must be "gated," it's gotta be WARGATE (possibly without the annoying all-caps, of course).

[vachon]

Katrina sank Bush, irrevocably imho. No one will or can forget what they saw for 4 full days and nights. It could have been any one of us in that catastrophe and the entire country knows that down to their bones.

[emptywheel]

Dem

I think I just wrote the same thing, different perspective in the last thread.

Lots of Reptiles calling for new blood (is it me, or has reptile just taken hold in the last 3 days?). But no one yet willing to force the issue. How will they force the issue? Thus far, they've given away everything but the power of the purse (and if they try to wield purse, DeLay or Blunt steals their pocketbook).

The anti-torture might yet be the thing to force the issue. Power of the purse, granted, but so much more.

[DemFromCT]

DHinMI followed with a different perspective, new thread. They all lead in the same direction.

Both Bush and Frist need new blood, it seems. But R control of either the WH or Senate agenda isn't what it used to be. And I don't see Bush doing a Reagan recovery. He's in a lose-lose... if he admits error, his cowboy base will be horrified. Kindly St. Ronald could pull it off, but as said many times, Bush is not Reagan.

[DemFromCT]

vachon, Katrina's still an issue. just 'cause the media lost interest doesn't mean everything's fixed now.

[DHinMI]

Truscott? Giving advice to Bush? Too funny.

Truscott was John Engler's right hand man when Engler was promising Bush that Michigan would be his firewall, that there was no way McCain would beat Bush in Michigan.

McCain slaughtered Bush, winning big margins in 14 of the (then) 16 Congressional Districts and a huge statewide margin.

I suspect Truscott doesn't get invited to very many WH shindigs.

[wilbersil]

I think one very important thing not to underestimate is that durring katrina the media reported images of destruction and dead bodies in the street. For a momment the media regained their balls and were collectively able to ask some important questions. For the first time in a while you would here media spokes people speaking back to those that they were interviewing and truely questioning the validity of the information instead of becoming conduits or megaphones for those that choose to mislead. If Americans were shown images of death that portray more accurately the horrors of war on a continual basis I believe they would no longer support the war in Iraq. When americans saw images of dead bodies in the streets after hurricane Katrina I believe they awoke the inner voice of their concience. Nothing the administration had to say could compete with these images that screamed louder than ten thousand words.

[DemFromCT]

Broder:

But after the fiasco of the Harriet Miers nomination and the other reversals of recent days and weeks, the Alito nomination inevitably looks like a defensive move, a lunge for the lifeboat by an embattled president to secure what is left of his political base. Instead of a consistent and principled approach to major decision making, Bush's efforts look like off-balance grabs for whatever policy rationales he can find. The president's opponents are emboldened by this performance, and his fellow partisans must increasingly wonder if they can afford to march to his command.

Same recitation:

But the message that has been sent is that this president is surprisingly easy to roll. He came out of his election victory proclaiming that Social Security reform was his No. 1 priority. For six months he stumped the country trying to sell his ideas -- and failed. In retrospect, even Republicans said he misjudged the temper of the public by emphasizing privatization over solvency as the chief goal. He tried to isolate senior citizens from the battle, only to see them in the front lines. And he managed to unite the Democrats in opposition -- something their own leaders rarely can manage.

Next came Hurricane Katrina, which showed the whole country a case study in mismanagement by a White House supposedly under Harvard Business School-level discipline. Bush's first decision post-Katrina was to suspend the law guaranteeing prevailing wages for reconstruction work. But that decision too was quickly reversed, in the face of pressure from Democrats, moderate Republicans and even the supposedly enfeebled labor movement.

And then came the Miers fiasco, with the dagger held by the president's staunchest allies. It made a shambles of any consistent claim that Bush employs serious principles in picking judges. A system that veers from an accomplished and studiously nonideological John Roberts to a marginally credentialed and often confused-sounding Harriet Miers to an intellectual and experienced Samuel Alito with pronounced ideological views is no system at all.

Like most buliies, Bush folds when challenged.

[DemFromCT]

remember when I said we are a moderate, not a conservative country? More Broder:

But the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll contains a clear warning. Self-described conservatives made up only 31 percent of the electorate. Moderates numbered 44 percent. And the moderates were nearly exact opposites of the conservatives in their views toward Bush, disapproving of his job performance by a 38 to 61 percent margin, while conservatives approved 61 to 39.

The risks of a Supreme Court showdown fight are at least as great for Bush as for the Democrats.

[al-Fubar]

Broder, of all people - wow!

-- Rick

[DemFromCT]

Rick, same theme: conservatives win nationally only when they bamboozle moderates. and at the moment, moderates are pissed.