Today's Political Comment

Is George W. Bush in trouble with these new revelations that the government had some sort of advance word that Osama's boys might start hijacking planes?  Of course.  And if it were President Al Gore, we'd be hearing exactly the same arguments, only Democrats would be saying what Republicans are now saying and vice-versa.  What's more, we're going to be hearing this kind of thing for months to come, with new revelations being spun accordingly.  Get used to it.

The thing I think is most interesting — not encouraging; just interesting — is the establishment of a solid and militant anti-Bush faction in this country.  All presidents have their detractors, of course, but until the rise of the anti-Clinton people, a group that perhaps never exceeded 20% of the population never had such buying power and clout.  (I am speaking here of people who hate absolutely everything the hated president does and believe every negative allegation against him…not merely those citizens who'd prefer some other guy in the job.)

The anti-Clinton faction was never as loud as its noise would indicate but they bought a lot of "Bill and Hillary are the devil" books, so publishers cranked them out.  They bolstered the careers of certain pundits who trashed the Clintons, with or without benefit of accuracy, so we heard a lot from Clinton-bashing pundits.  In some areas, they gave goodly sums of moola to Republicans who promised to bring the First Family to justice.  It was a very healthy industry in many ways and they had plenty of topics to scream about: Whitewater, Vince Foster, charges of sexual impropriety, fund-raising scandals, etc.

Bush still has his stratospheric approval rating…just as, let's note, Clinton did at the height of Impeachment-Mania.  But now, like Clinton, he's developed that group, no greater than 20% of Americans, that loathe him, believe he has committed vast criminal actions, etc.  Books by Michael Moore and David Brock ride high on the Best Seller Lists so there will be more.  (There's always more of whatever's high on the Best Seller Lists.)  The anti-Bush people may never swell their ranks significantly higher but between this and Enron and the Florida vote and several others, they now have enough topics, enough charges of wrongdoing against G.W.B., that they will not be silenced.  As with Clinton-bashing, there's just too much money in it.