There are polls out saying Bush and Cheney are hitting unprecedented lows in personal (and policy) unpopularity, and that a solid majority of troops in Iraq think the U.S. should start packing to leave. I never believe any one poll but I suspect these are at least showing the direction in which opinion is moving. With Bush sticking to his guns on this Dubai Ports deal despite overwhelming public opposition…and with Cheney handling that shooting incident the way he did…it ain't hard to believe both men could have dropped a few points in the last week.
What I find amazing is that the American public is coming to these conclusions with very little help from the Democrats. There are a few Dems like John Kerry out there attacking the administration but not too well and without much notice. Frankly, I think Kerry's wasting his breath. This country never listens to anyone who lost an election; not until many years after, and then only when the person seems to have a good shot at becoming a winner again. Much of the U.S. didn't listen to Kerry before he lost and we don't even listen to someone like Al Gore who got more votes than the guy who allegedly beat him. With the occasional exception of Howard Dean, who doesn't get a lot of air time, I don't see any prominent Democrat out there making even a semi-effective case against the war and Bush policies. And yet, the country is getting there without them.
Reminds me of a joke I wrote after the 1972 election…one of the first I ever had performed on television by a professional comedian. It was, "Every time the Republicans do something wrong, I blame George McGovern. Because if Nixon had run unopposed, he would have lost." Bush is operating with pretty feeble opposition…and he's losing.