Old Forecasts Come Back to Haunt Bush

[swag]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032000341.html


By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 21, 2006; Page A14

Three years of upbeat White House assessments about Iraq that turned out to be premature, incomplete or plain wrong are complicating President Bush's efforts to restore public faith in the military operation and his presidency, according to pollsters and Republican lawmakers and strategists.
. . .
Pollsters and some congressional Republicans said the administration's sunny-side-up appraisals, instead of lifting the public mood, may now complicate the task of sustaining support for a long-term military commitment in Iraq. The loss of trust, they said, is affecting Bush's presidency more broadly, as polls show his public support at a nadir.
. . .

Michael Dimock, associate director of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, said a recent survey by his group showed the public skeptical toward Bush, about both his administrative competency and his personal credibility. Only 40 percent of respondents said Bush was trustworthy, a 22-point drop from September of 2003, six months after the invasion of Iraq.

Dimock said the cumulative effect of the past three years has made Bush's public-relations challenge imposing, and perhaps impossible. "When you give a speech and try to persuade people that they are only hearing the bad and things are going better than the media is saying, if a majority of people say they do not find you trustworthy, it is hard to be persuasive," he said.

. . . more

[Newsjock]

1. Ah yes, in that legendary home of the greatest Washington Post journalism

Page A14.

[depakid]

8. Ain't it the truth, though

Of all the nation's papers (including the NY Times) it was the post that consistently trumpeted these "upbeat White House assessments."

In big, bold letters- on A1.

Ironic that the Post should now be talking about "the loss of trust" on its back pages....

[ixion]

17. for THREE YEARS, no less

w/o ever doing ANY investigative journalism, apparently. :grr:

[Cocoa]

2. Richard Perle too

see my sig line...

[swag]

3. Yes, I love that quote from Perle.

Nice sig.

[LynnTheDem]

4. "long-term military commitment in Iraq"...so "CAKEWALK" was a tad wrong?

Sorta like "We know where they are" and "there is no doubt" and "mushroom clouds" and "imminent threat"?

Gee, I am shocked. Really I am.

[Nostradammit]

5. His public support has not reached its nadir yet

Not by a long shot.

Catastrophic success he ain't.

[calimary]

10. My husband keeps talking about his predictions for bush's poll numbers.

He's absolutely certain bush will sink into the 20-percent range, and maybe even single digits before he's gone. Every poll that comes out, he always pipes up with - "oh, it's gonna go lower than THAT."

I usually respond with some version of "from your lips to God's ears!"

[Nostradammit]

13. Your husband is a prophet.

Very few yellow ribbons left on the cars around here. Very, very few Bush stickers.

Things have changed a lot in the last year.

[yurbud]

15. great artwork. Did you do it?

[Nostradammit]

16. Yes, thank you

Just trying to keep it simple...

[UpInArms]

6. I think this says it best:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again."—Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

http://www.slate.com/id/76886/

[MO_Dem]

12. Yes, you are absolutely right

I wish we could invent a "talking bumper sticker". Wouldn't it be cool to have that clip of w bush blaring out of our bumpers? :woohoo:

[gratuitous]

7. The Post finally noticed

The Bush administration, steadfastly refusing to acknowledge reality and openly hostile to any outside advice or "interference," has consistently painted everything as rosy in Iraq, improving all the time and only getting better.

Now that reality has persisted, and everyone with two working brain cells has figured out that Iraq is looking a little more like quicksand and a little less like the promised land, the Bushistas have squandered their credibility with the American people. Well, they squandered it quite some time ago, really, but cheeleaders like the Post have faithfully parroted every sanguine word out of every Bush mouthpiece for three years and more, propping up an incompetent regime, and gulling a public that really wanted things to work out, against all odds.

For those of us who saw this imperialistic power grab for what it was three years ago (and longer), it's been like watching a three-year-old jab a fork at an electrical outlet. You know damn good and well that the most likely result is the kid's going to shoot himself 10 feet across the room, and that the only suspenseful thing is whether he'll be dead or alive when he stops twitching. But for three fucking years, the Bush administration has steadfastly maintained that as soon as Junior closes that electrical contact, he's going to poop out a pill that cures cancer. While every rational being on the planet knows that's pretty far down the list of potential outcomes, it's not completely impossible. Yet that insane fool's hope has been propped up as a reasonable possibility by a lot of people who should know better, including the Washington Post.

So, will this revelation change the way the Post covers the President and his insanity? Or will it be back to business as usual tomorrow, uncritically repeating every stupid pronouncement that comes out of this corrupt administration?

[killbotfactory]

9. This happened in Vietnam, too

Everything was gravy, we were winning, the VC were neutered, blah sunshine blah roses blah... then the Tet offensive came.

[William Seger]

11. "Haunted" is a particularly appropriate choice of words...

... considering the uncounted tens of thousands of deaths he's directly responsible for.

[swag]

14. Hell, a morning kick, after a jarring move from LBN.