Dionne: It's No Holiday for Bush

[grytpype]

Excellent analysis of Bush's current troubles...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/08/AR2005080801145.html

President Bush has survived summers of discontent before. But this season's doldrums -- reflected in dismal poll numbers and a surprisingly weak Republican showing in a special Ohio congressional election -- will be harder to surmount. They are the culmination of doubts about Bush that have germinated below the surface of public opinion for much of his presidency.

...

The race in Ohio, where Democrat Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran, managed 48 percent of the vote in a district Bush carried with 64 percent last year, has Republicans scrambling for alibis. Many in the party are ascribing the narrowness of former state representative Jean Schmidt's victory to flaws in her campaign and her candidacy. The search for a scapegoat is the surest sign that the GOP knows something is badly wrong.

...

Bush's obvious problem is Iraq. The sharp rise in casualties over the past fortnight has pushed the war back onto the television news and aggravated opposition. Less noticed is that from its inception, this war was never broadly popular. . . .

...

Two other factors are hurting Bush. In misreading his reelection as a "mandate" for his proposals to create private Social Security accounts, the president set off on a mission that few voters felt they had assigned him. And months of gloomy talk about an impending Social Security "crisis" reinforced doubts about the state of an economy that Bush has only recently begun to talk up.

...

(more at link, must read)

[JDPriestly]

1. Bush has a terrible temper.

I bet it's no picnic at the "Crawford White House" this year. I wonder how many and whose heads are going to role this fall.

[Erika]

2. Spoiled frat boys are like that

Let's just hope he doesn't unleash the National Guard on the Blue states.

He's got to face it, he will have the worst legacy of any president (and I use the term loosely) in our country's history.

His presidency will be know as the president who really wasn't and who proved it shouldn't have been. The damage he's done this country is unfathonable.

[bleever]

3. I'll second that, all of it. n/t

[grytpype]

5. " the president who really wasn't and who proved he shouldn't have been."

Great quote.

[Erika]

6. Sadly & infuriating it is true

Thank you.

[Captain Hilts]

10. True. And he hates public appearances.

During the 2000 campaign my boss was desperately trying to get Bush to have more than two campaign appearances a day when Gore was having four or more.

He wants things his own way. I remember reading about his coming unglued because someone ate his sandwhich. I don't know if it's true, but it fits a pattern.

[grytpype]

4. And just look at what else Bush has in store for him...

1. Continued disaster in Iraq. It's inevitable.

2. Indictments of Rove and Libby and possibly even higher up. The whole story about the Plame affair comes out.

3. Social Security "reform" totally fails.

4. Higher gas and oil prices.

5. The new, really bad pictures from Abu Ghraib come out, reopening that wound.

6. The AIPAC espionage scandal, worse than the Jonathan Pollard Israeli spy case.

And much more I'm sure... Dub sure is lucky he has a childlike mind and is being sheltered from all this by his aides, because an adult would go nuts in a pressure cooker like that.

[yorkiemommie1]

7. boy would i love to see him snap

n/t

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

12. Not me.

I'm terrified we can't survive the next couple years left with out this homicidal psychopath pushing the nuclear button. His big chance will soon pass if we're very lucky.

[Hekate]

8. Add to those troubles Cindy Sheehan sitting at the gates

I cannot believe that W and his handlers could be so stupid as to not make one humane gesture toward that woman. It would have cost them nothing to send out bottled water or ice tea before she had the heat stroke, and would have gained them great PR.

Speaking as one who prays that "the truth will out" about the base nature of this regime, I'm just as glad they're not making any good press for themselves -- but still, it makes you wonder how blindly arrogant they are...

Hekate

[Raster]

11. Bless her heart. A country should NEVER go to war because it wants to,

only because it has to. That is the covenant that government (us) makes with the military. They will be there to protect and defend. We will judiciously ask them to make that sacrifice. Remember, this is the (mis)administration that has fought tooth and nail against allowing photographs of flag-draped coffins. This is the pResident that has not attended one--NOT ONE--of the funerals that he has directly caused.

God bless Cindy Sheehan and every person who has been affected by this corporate death extravaganza. And God bless the poor Iraqis, who have the misfortune of being on the wrong side of the * and the neocons messianic push for power. And finally, God bless the American citizens, for every day we allow this travesty to continue in our names, we become just as guilty as the perpetrators.

[Catfight]

9. Well, at least history will say, "the Republican party destroyed

American Democracy under the first appointed president, George W. Bush." We need a president that represents the 21st century, a black man, a woman, anything other than a rich spoiled white brat who went to an ivy league school. Everyone is sick of these types of A-holes.