Two blogs that are new to me, The Next Hurrah and Pacific Views, link to and comment on a story that ran in The Washington Post about the public's disenchantment with Bush. From the orginal article:
The public's loss of faith in Bush goes back many months to the early weeks of the Iraq war, when nearly two-thirds of Americans found him trustworthy. Less than half felt that way in October, according to the Pew Research Center.
One issue is the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, Bush's chief rationale for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Rather than admit a mistake, Bush emphasized other reasons for war.
"DemFromCT," of The Last Hurrah, writes:
He promised to fire the Plame leakers but hasn't fired Rove, something not lost on Reid, who seems to be in the middle of WH agita. For a straight-talking cowboy, Bush is doing a whole lot of shucking and jiving, ain't he? And he's looking mighty lost not just to Republican allies, but to the American people.
That's why Bush keeps trying to change the subject. The subject is the war. It's always been about the war. Plame leaks are about the war. Bush's credibility loss is over the war. And Bush is going to learn that you can't just change the subject on this.
Going back to the original article, we find:
The building blocks of President Bush's career _ his credibility and image as a strong and competent leader _ have been severely undercut by self-inflicted wounds, leading close allies to fret about his presidency. They say he's lost his way.
These senior Republicans, including past and current White House advisers, say they believe the president can find his way back into people's hearts but extreme measures need to be taken. Shake up his staff, unveil fresh policies, travel the country and be more accountable for his mistakes _ these and other solutions are being discussed at the highest levels of the GOP.
Pacific Views' Mary looks at it this way:
That's right. These people think that George's misfortunes can be papered over and people will once more see him as a strong capable leader. They must not think much of the American public if they believe that.
To which I would add that it's not just that they don't think much of the American public, they think too much of George W. Bush. They're asking him to do that which he is incapable of doing. He can't shake up his staff, because they're the only ones holding up his suit. He no longer has the support in Congress to get any fresh policies passed. He traveled the county trying to sell his Social Security plan and no one bought it. "Accountability" is a word he doesn't know the meaning of, and I mean that literally.
In short, and I think this is the deep dark truth currently being faced by whatever few at the highest levels of the GOP are capable of facing it: The only way for George W. Bush to course-correct his presidency is for him not to be George W. Bush.
I remain convinced that discussions are still being held about an early exit strategy. For "health" reasons, no doubt.
Mary continues:
Can Americans get over their disaffection for Bush? There are few examples of politicians reclaiming the high ground after such a disastrous landing. Bush's legacy is pretty well set and it would take a miracle for Bush to pull out of the hole he has dug for himself. As the old saying says: You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. In order for him to regain the highground would take a catastrophe. Oh wait, that's been done already.
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