Saturday, August 12, 2006
The Fall of Humpty Dumpty
Smoke & Mirrors * Flag Waving * Fluff Factor Enters French Politics
No matter what he does the president seems unable to garner support for his actions. The swagger of the war president no longer cuts it. Smoke and mirrors fail to hide the ugly truth. The voters in their wisdom have seen through the facade. Results of the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll are revealing.
- "An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted this week found the president's approval rating has dropped to 33 percent, matching his low in May. His handling of nearly every issue, from the Iraq war to foreign policy, contributed to the president's decline around the nation, even in the Republican-friendly South.
- More sobering for the GOP are the number of voters who backed Bush in 2004 who are ready to vote Democratic in the fall's congressional elections — 19 percent. These one-time Bush voters are more likely to be female, self-described moderates, low- to middle-income and from the Northeast and Midwest.
- Two years after giving the Republican president another term, more than half of these voters — 57 percent — disapprove of the job Bush is doing.
Ah, thought of the consternation among the president's handlers is cause for rejoicing.
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses,
And all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again."
-- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
They Are Still Playing the Patriot Card
The total number of American soldiers who died in Iraq is now 2599 including 21 in August. Against the war in Iraq ? Then you are unpatriotic. Same old refrain. Nothing else seems to be working for the Republicans, so they wrap themselves in the Flag. It is the same gang that came up with Freedom Fries.
E.J. Dionne in the Post:
- Oh my goodness, as Don Rumsfeld might say. Support for the Iraq war hits a record low, and all the president's hit men decide that it's time to smear their opponents as defeatists who give aid and comfort to the enemy.
- Of course they didn't mention the poll on Iraq released by CNN on Wednesday. As a basis for their guilt-by-association campaign, they used the fact that Democratic voters in Tuesday's Connecticut primary favored antiwar businessman Ned Lamont over Sen. Joe Lieberman.
- The gentlemen who have gotten us into a mess in Iraq prefer not to explain how they'll fix things. They would rather use national security for partisan purposes, and they were all out there on Wednesday, spewing incendiary talking points. Hey, they may not have sent enough troops to win a war, but they sure know how to win midterm elections.
Segolene Royal
The French political scene rocked by controvery over presidential candidate Segolene Royal's photographs (taken by paparazzi without her consent) in a turquoise bikini. It is not that the French are prudes. The moral values brigade from America has not yet infiltrated French politicians. It is what they consider "trivilization" of politics in popular media that has rattled them. The French ought to accept the inevitable. The French public has shown a voracious appetite for the so called "tell all" magazines about the rich and famous. So, the publishers will do their best to cater to them. Segolene Royal is 54 and attractive. She reportedly went through a makeover before entering the presidential race. The pictures cannot do her any harm. In America it would have been a different kettle of fish.
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