Is it any surprise that Bush's numbers are in a freefall? Bush used to be able to get a ratings bump by redirecting the tempo of the news cycle by staging a fake "news event". That type of spin control is no longer an option for Bush because the staged speech, the photo op, the smear campaign and the press conference with loaded questions have less news value than a fake reality show.
If we were watching "Survivor", Dubya from the Grand Old Party tribe, would be the next guy to get kicked off the island. The GOP alliance is imploding like a row of dominos.
The nomination of Harriet Miers was timed to upstage the fallout from Katrina, but Bush's choice of Miers was so controversial he walked into a minefield there. Late last week Bush tried to redirect the news cycle with his old standby, the war on terror. That didn't work because public is no longer as terrorized by al Qaeda, as much they're terrorized by Bush.
The fact has finally sunk in for most Americans: Iraq wasn't about WMD, or bringing democracy to Iraq; for Bush it was always all about Standard Oil and British Petroleum. It's difficult for Bush maintain the moral imperative, once the public has discovered that the war in Iraq was just another gift from the GOP to their friends and campaign contributors in the petroleum industry.
The end result of the three year Bush's ill advised crusade of greed in Iraq will likely be a an anti-American, pro-Iranian, pro-jihad, constitutional theocracy in Baghdad; i.e. America's worst nightmare. It's the exact opposite of result Bush intended to get with his Iraq crusade.
The world is not a safer place. Iraq has become the vacation destination of choice for every wannabe terrorist on the face of the earth. Al Qaeda is spreading like wildfire on a prairie of brittle brown grass.
After the Iraq elections in November, the Ayatollah will un-invite American occupation troops in Iraq. And when Johnny goes marching home, the new Shiite leadership in Baghdad will celebrate the departure of the American military demons with a week long hoedown. On the hoedown guest list will be: fellow "freedom fighters" Osama Bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, along with delegations from Hamas, the nation of Palestine and the republic of Iran.
That was some War on Terror, right?
Bush can't revisit the Social Security issue either; because the public realizes it was a half baked attempt to start dismantling the largest and most successful safety net program from the New Deal era. The only legislative accomplishments of Bush and the GOP is a bill that screws John Q. Pubic if he files for bankruptcy, a bill that allows credit card companies hound John Q. Public for higher monthly payments, and a bill that gives the green light to lumberjacks and oil drillers to invade our protected forests.
Worst of all Bush has ordered extensive amendments and rewrites of regulatory agency rules. Bush is handing over, by administrative fiat, all decisions of public policy, to banking industry,international oil companies,Wall Street brokerage firms, multinational media companies, drug manufacturers,the military weapons industry, and contractors for privatized public services that the federal government used to provide more efficiently and cheaply.
Bush's ratings freefall will continue because no matter what attention grabbing "fake news event" is staged by the White House to redirect the news cycle in a positive direction. Photo-ops and staged events are correctly perceived by the public as yet another public message from George W.Bush on behalf of his corporate sponsors.
Bush and Congress has been indulging themselves in an orgy of corruption and criminal behavior for five solid years. When the feeding frenzy is over, it will be up to the shell shocked American citizens to pick up the pieces of what is left of our American democracy.
It will take years, if not decades to bridge the gulf between the conservatives and liberals that Bush has created with his divisive and manipulative modus operandi. The question of whether we can ever forge a fresh consenus as a unified nation is still a matter of debate. Bush's presidential legacy is his creation of a deeply divided nation that was cut adrift by a self serving,narcissistic buffoon. Bush convinced us he had the vision of a statesman, which turned out to be a nighmarish hallucination of a madman.We are no longer a nation with a critical mass,common agenda,or an ethical foundation.
I shudder to think what another three years of Bush's relentless use of a jackhammer upon consitutional foundation of America will do the integrity of our democratic structure. At the rate the GOP demolition crews are currently tearing down the house of America; there may not be much of a home left to renovate after Bush's lease expires in January 2009.
My personal feeling if the Democrats don't make the 2006 congressional elections a refendum on the failure of the Bush adminstration they will continue to stumble around in search of a leader.
It is the warfare of politics that develops a party's leadership, be it Democrat or Republican.The GOP has understood that elections are won or lost on a candidate's ability to convince voters that his cause is holy and his crusade is moral. The Democrats still hold on to the cherished notion that candidates are elected on the basis of fair debate, common sense and good public policy initatives. Tell that to your GOP opponent who's about to throw a blindside punch at you, beat and kick you sensless, mug you by stealing your integrity and ridicule you the entire time he's doing it.
I know that sounds like a statement from the mouth of Karl Rove or David Horowitz. But, like it or not, the river in which we presently swim has a turbulent undercurrent. It's either fight the current and swim or be pulled under by the strength of the river's turbulent force.
Leaderhip is born out of conflict and the best course of action is to declare war on the entire premise of the conservative political enterpirse. Howard Dean's value to the Democrats isn't as presidential timber, but as one of the few Democratic leaders who fully understands the nature of the Republican beast of war. Dean has enough of a survival instinct to fight back. Maybe it's because he's a physician and knows the exactlocation of the jugular artery, but Dean is the GOP's worst nightmare because he understands them. Everytime he opens his mouth, GOP leaders and pundits are falling all over themselves to denounce him and demand an apology.
At minimum the Democrats need recapture both the House and Senate to nuetralize Bush and bring him forward on articles of impeachment. That is almost an insurmountable task, but if that doesn't happen, by the 2008 presidential election we may all be voting at paperless Diebold voting stations, developed by a research grant from the Central Committee of the Republican Party.
For now, we can place our faith in one undeniable truth: the final curtain is about to come down on the GOP Culture of Greed and when the indictments are in and the dust settles, we can't simply breathe a big sigh of relief and get on with our lives.
As it currently stands, a Republican Party that is wounded and in the state of disarray can probably still win more elections than a fully equipped and trained Democratic campaign organization, with the displine and focus of the Spartan army.