Summer Sludge (President Bush is having yet another rough August)

[Caleb]

Summer Sludge
American Prospect
By Terence Samuel
Web Exclusive: 08.11.05

Once again, George W. Bush is having a bad August and, again, the question on the table is whether a bad August for the president translates into a good one for Democrats.

Last summer, Democrats believed there was a chance that John Kerry could take Bush down. The news out of Iraq was bad; Kerry was leading in polls in places like West Virginia and Colorado; the Swift Boat vets had only just begun their slow dismemberment of the Democratic nominee; and the Republicans had not yet mauled Kerry the way they would at the GOP convention just before Labor Day.

There was hope that Bush’s bad August would turn into a good November for the Democrats. We know how that turned out.

And, of course, there was August 2002, the age of Enron and other cooked books. That, too, appeared to be a perilous time for the president. His friends were getting caught cheating and lying and ruining the lives and fortunes of thousands of average American workers. Democrats could not wait to turn those troubles into votes that fall. Instead the Democrats got crushed, losing Senate seats in Minnesota and Missouri, with Bush taking a lead role in those Senate campaigns.

The polls suggest that public disaffection with the war in Iraq is real and growing, and that the White House is no longer as effective as it had been in selling Americans on the war. And that is why both the president’s approval numbers and support for the Iraqi effort are tumbling.

This would seem a golden moment for Democrats, but there is a reason why they have been slow to capitalize. Except for DNC Chairman Howard Dean, most prominent Democrats, while they have challenged the conduct of the war, are on record as supporting the effort. As a result, they are not well-positioned to take advantage of the deepening public concern about what is going on in Iraq. Like Kerry, who was for the war before he was against it last summer, Democrats are hugely compromised on what may turn out to be their best weapon against the White House.

Full story

[rfranklin]

1. The answer is simple: "We were lied to. Now we know the truth...

Bush is a liar and an incompetent."

The Democrats voted for the war based on phoney claims of WMDs and mushroom clouds. Why cling to support for the war when most of America knows and believes that Bush lied us into the war for whatever ulterior reasons.

[rfranklin]

2. Link doesnt work

[Cha]

3. Here..

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10102

[Cha]

4. Especially when you have

those pesky diebold machines on your side..

"But Bush in August is almost never the same as Bush in November, especially when November -- the important one, that is -- is 15 months away."

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Whether Diebold is a factor or not

The Democrats have a way of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. We can't let it happen again.

[Cha]

6. Yes, it has to be

an overwhelming Victory!