Gotcha. Not what I meant.
I mean he isn't drowning in negative opinion numbers yet.
He isn't getting killed on the Iraq issue. 57% of the country now thinks he is mismanaging the war, according to Pew. But the country is still split as to whether the war was a good idea in the first place. After all of this, including Rovegate, the country still isn't sure what to think of attacking Iraq. And most of the country (52%) still thinks the war is going fairly well or very well. They just think that Bush isn't doing as good a job as someone else could. And 52% want to keep the troops there until Iraq is stable.
So what the heck is going on?
64% of the country thinks the problem is that the President never had a clear plan to end the war in Iraq, and that he still hasn't figured out one. That's the problem, according to most of the country. Not that he cooked up the start, but that he didn't plan an end. They feel, as Dean even does, that we broke it and we bought it. But they wanted to break it, and now they want Bush to fix it. This connotes that many still think Bush CAN fix it.
The country isn't sure whether it's helped us or hurt us in the war on terrorism.
They're not sure it's increased or decreased the chances of getting attacked by somebody else.
They're not even sure if the Iraqis support the war or not. Whether they want us to be there or not. Americans think they are getting a lot of info, but they can't form a majority opinion on even this simple question.
There isn't even a majority opinion on a timetable. The country is confused, and it wants an easy answer. That's where the frustration with Bush lies. Not in real mismanagement, but in that he hasn't done any better in figuring this out than most people.
Most americans do want us to leave before long. They are fearful we will stay too long. But they think that a solution is just around the corner. And then they keep getting frustrated that there isn't.
That's right. Bush's dropping numbers on this issue are not our doing, so much as they are Cheney's. So much as they are Rumsfeld. If he fired those two morons, he'd be back in business again, like it was 9/12/01. But none of the president's men have more loyalty to him than they do to those two. They aren't going to tell him this.
Then there is the court. Americans don't have any fixed opinion of Judge Roberts, according to CNN. Most people think it's at least a good choice (51%). Interestingly, the AP found that on Tuesday, 59% hadn't heard enough to make up their minds.
In just 3 days, people have made up their minds. Based on what? A lot of fluff. 54% of the people think he's a generally positive individual. Not quite as many think he should be on the court, but that's within the margin of error.
Here's the kicker. 76% of Americans can't say whether his views are mainstream of not. 76%. But most Americans think he's a good choice for the court. Most think he's a good guy. Have people completely lost sight of the whole point of the court? Do they think it's completely irrelevant to their lives? The answer is yes. It's nine people in robes.
Fully 1/3 of the people don't care whether or not this man is confirmed. It's not really important to them. They don't know what to think about confirmation. Bush can't lose with those kinds of numbers.
That said, 74% believe it is appropriate for the senate to ask his opinion on abortion, and 61% believe it appropriate to ask how he would rule on abortion cases. So, we can ask. The people are curious. Some of them are curious the way they would be curious about why Brad Pitt got sick last week, but they want to know.
But the saddest number is that 77% of the country doesn't care that Sandra Day O'Connor wasn't replaced by a woman. Whatever.
As the Daily Show put it, "This is ONE WHITE GUY."
It just doesn't matter to people. And that's how REALLY WHITE GUYS win. Because the court is largely irrelevant to a significant portion of this country. Except that it isn't.