As I believe Kos once commented something like:
Wow. Just wow.
Utahns break from Bush on Iraq. Reddest state no longer behind war's handling, split on 'surge'
Utahns break from Bush on Iraq
Reddest state no longer behind war's handling, split on 'surge'
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
President Bush has lost majority support on Iraq from residents of the reddest state in the nation.
A Salt Lake Tribune poll conducted last week shows Utah's support for Bush's handling of the war in Iraq has taken a substantial plunge in the past few months. Just 41 percent of Utahns say they support Bush on Iraq - marking the first time a Tribune poll has found fewer than half of Utahns in the president's war camp.
Less than six months ago, with Bush and two senior members of his Cabinet in town to shore up support in the state that gave him his largest margin of victory in two elections, 54 percent of Utahns supported him on Iraq, according to a Tribune poll conducted in August. That rate exceeded national numbers collected at the same time by about 20 percent.
If this isn't the fat lady singing, what is?
It's a long article. I think one more quote is allowable:
But Bill King, a Salt Lake City resident who also participated in The Tribune survey, said Bush is the failure.
King said he had "skeptical support" for the president's decision to go to war in Iraq. Now, King believes, Bush is responsible for mismanaging a war that has cost more than 3,000 American lives.
"He's a crook," King said.
Crook.
Echoes of Nixon, who resigned to avoid impeachment.
UPDATE
One thing that should've been made clearer is that it's Bush's war policy/performance that has taken the approval hit. He's still well liked personally:
Utahns continue to support Bush personally, with 56 percent rating the president's performance in the White House as "excellent" or "good" in the Tribune poll
But still it's a start.
.
And to second that, this is another article & poll of Utahns:
Utah still the reddest red, poll finds. Bush, Cheney rate far higher than in U.S. polls
A new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV survey by Dan Jones & Associates, taken this past week, finds that 61 percent of Utahns approve of Bush's job performance
(Notice the opposite spin of this article from the Salt Lake Tribune article.)
It tells you that Utah is still very very red.