The big question that I have about all the scandal and corruption coming to light about the Bu$hCo Administration is whether or not it will make any difference?
As much as people here hate to hear this, the War is a done deal. The Dems can’t pass any legislation to effect it any way. They don’t have 60 votes in the Senate to stop the Republicers from holding up, mutilating or killing any bill they want, nor do they have the 67 votes to override a Presidential veto. The only thing they could do is cut funding completely. Polls show that American voters support that plan less than they approve of Bu$hCo’s job performance, and for good reason. If it was done, Bu$hCo would withdrawal contractor support, pay, mail service, fuel, food, ammo, medical care, spare parts, equipment and other support from the troops in the field sacrificing hundreds or thousands of lives to score political points against the Dems.
So, unfortunately, for at least the next 21 months, not much is going to happen about the war.
The remaining question is whether or not the continued dissatisfaction about the war; the tax giveaways to the super rich and corporate elite; the sky rocketing massive public debt; the doubling and tripling of retail gasoline prices; the mounting public exposure of one corruption scandal after another; the war on science and reason; the wrong doings and law breaking by the CIA, NSA, Justice Department and a host of other secret police organizations; the massive constitutional violations; the torture, gulags, renditions, military tribunals, suspension of habis corpus, signing statements, etc., etc. will have any effect on the American electorate.
For about 4 months now Bu$h’s approval rating polling has been more-or-less unchanged at around 33 or 34%. It’s been extensively blogged that his batshit, monkey fuck crazy solid floor of support is probably no lower than about 22 to 25%, so he still has some room to drop. But he’s not dropping. I watch each new poll thinking that this is it, this has to be where some of that last 8 to 12% of soft supporters will start to drop away, but poll after poll, week after week, month after month, it never happens. WTF?
http://www.pollkatz.homestead.com/
http://www.pollster.com/...
http://users.pop.umn.edu/...
There are other measures to tell if any of this evil crap is resonating among the American electorate. Are the Indies swinging toward the Dems? Yes, more than ever before, but still in the big scheme of things, just a few percent of them. Are the people that only mildly disapprove of Bu$hCo becoming more and more disillusioned? Yes, but again, very slowly and not overwhelmingly. Do Dems continue to gain in party affiliation? Yes, but that has slowed considerably since the election. But it’s too easy for Republicers to distance themselves from Bu$hCo and even the last Congress, and for Indies to claim that the Dems were the same way 12 years ago when they were in power, so I’m not sure that the new corruption scandals will have as much effect on these measures.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
The Republicer name brand is tarnished, but it appears that there is some functional limit to how much it can tarnish. We seem to be at the point of diminishing returns. It appears that no matter what additional evil shit we uncover about Bu$hCo and the Republicers, it’s not really changing too many more minds about anything at this point. Call it corruption burn out, emotional disbelief, scandal overload, political exhaustion, or the point of diminishing returns, but the fact is, that Bu$hCo has just as much support now as it did before Walter Reed, USAgate, CIA law breaking revelations, gas prices going up 30% since the election, the implementation of the surge, and passing 3000, then 3100, then 3200 American troops killed in Iraq.
These additional news stories are not changing the opinions of the 40% that seriously hate his guts nor the 20% that dislike him a little bit nor the 33% that support him, nor the 7% that are too confused, witless or unmotivated to have an opinion. If I saw him strangling children in wheelchairs with his bare hands, I could not hate him and his administration any more than I do now, and apparently that’s true of nearly all of the 40%, so these news stories have little net effect on us. And let’s say that 23% would jump up to help him strangle kids in wheelchairs if he asked them too. Let’s also assume that the 7% that don’t know what’s going on are not going to suddenly get a clue in our lifetime. That leaves 30% that still have some room to move in their opinions of him. But they ain’t moving very much.
Unless and until we see the last 8 to 12% of Bu$hCo’s soft support start to drop away, or some of the 20% that only slightly disapprove move to the "hate his guts" category, then I’m sorry to say that all the MSM coverage in the world of additional Bu$hCo corruption is having about as much effect on American public opinion as the price of tea in China.
What’s it going to take for his approval rating to drop below 32%?