Over on Salon, Eric Boehlert makes a very good point about the current downtrend in the popularity of George W. Bush. It's that it started on September 7 when he unveiled the price tag for rebuilding Iraq: $87 billion…
Within days of Bush's prime-time address, his approval ratings, and the support for his reconstruction plans in Iraq, began a steep decline. In retrospect, it's clear the speech became an unlikely presidential turning point — and possible tipping point — and one the White House has yet to recover from. Pollster Stan Greenberg told the Wall Street Journal he couldn't "find a parallel moment" in history when a president's approval rating dropped so dramatically following a nationally televised debate.
Here's the full article which I think is correct. Iraq sounded like a great American triumph to many until they started to realize what it will end up costing us to have deposed Saddam Hussein. I'm sure we're in for a roller coaster ride of viewpoints on this, as well as a lot of up and down on Bush's favorability rating. But it's interesting to note that, like so many things in this world, people change their minds about a war when they find out there's no money in it.