Confirming what appears to be obvious, the latest New York Times/CBS poll finds even more Americans have climbed on the anti-Iraq-war bandwagon and more have changing their minds about whether America should have invaded Iraq.
A large majority of the public — 76 percent, including a majority of Republicans — say that the additional American troops sent to Iraq this year by Mr. Bush have either had no impact or are making things worse there. Twenty percent think the troop increase is improving the situation in Iraq.
Gloomy outlook for Bush who, nonetheless, blames us Americans for not understanding.
"I fully understand it," he claimed. "I see it clearly." That leaves the rest of us muddleheaded, beer-drinking, pretzel-chokers paying his bills with our kids' lives and the country's future.
Even though Republicans are getting a bit more realistic, they're doing badly as a political party.
In general, more Americans now have a favorable view of the Democratic party (53 percent) than of the Republican party (38 percent). The Republican party has not had a majority positive rating in a New York Times/CBS News poll since December 2003.
Alex Koppelman notes with amusement that nothing has changed at Fox News. The commentator they brought in to discuss President Bush's statements this morning was John Bolton who assures us that there is one way and one way only to deal with an uppity Iran:
"I think we need a dramatic ramp-up of the pressure, and if we can't get that quickly from the Europeans, unfortunately we're going to have to do something else, like regime change or, as a last resort, the use of force by the United States."
Gee. Maybe we can get those numbers up by going to war with Iran. Now there's an original thought.
While the crazy 20-percenters crow about their great victory, I'd like to be a fly on wall in the office of Susan Collins, Gordon Smith, Arlen Specter, Norm Coleman or the 28 congressional Republicans who won in 2006 by 3% or less.
Now begins the twisting in the wind of "moderate" Republicans. These folks should be tied so closely to George W. Bush that you would think they have been doing the lambada for the last six years. The only real way to change direction in Iraq is to threaten the survival of Bush's enablers, the Republican Party. Their chances diminish with each new report of American deaths in Iraq and Baghdad suicide bombing. When the calender flips over to 2008 these folks will be sweating bullets in fear of the boss, the American voter.
The voters spoke on the Iraq War only seven months ago. From Bush and his party, they got the middle finger. Another tsunami in 2008 that washes away only Republicans, as happened in 2006, will help clear this mess up. Sadly, a thousand or more good young people will pay with their lives in the interim.
Posted by: Pug | May 25, 2007 at 07:32 AM