NYT Analysis: Bush Starts Out on a Five-Week Uphill Run

[gristy]

It has been mentioned recently by many DUers that a tipping point has been reached. I would tend to agree (note the paragraph in bold below), but pessimist that I am, there is still a very long road ahead of us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/25/politics/25ASSE.html

Bush Starts Out on a Five-Week Run Concerning Iraq, Much of It Apparently Uphill

By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
Published: May 25, 2004

WASHINGTON, May 24 - President Bush's speech on Monday night kicked off a critical five-week period in which the White House must not only make good on its pledge to return self-governance to the Iraqi people but also convince the American electorate that the benefits of deposing Saddam Hussein have outweighed the costs in blood, money and battered prestige.

It is a tall order. Mr. Bush spoke against the backdrop of unabated violence in Iraq, the prison abuse scandal, confusion about the plan for transferring authority to an as-yet-unnamed interim government on June 30 and the difficult negotiations concerning the role of the United Nations.

Making his task that much more complicated was the hard-fought presidential campaign, in which Mr. Bush's role as commander in chief is no longer the unalloyed strength the White House once assumed it would be.

In the hours before his address, delivered at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., Mr. Bush got a fresh reminder of just how fully his political fate is now tied to events in Iraq.

A new crop of opinion polls showed that his job approval ratings continue to fall, that Americans increasingly think the nation is on the wrong track and that most people do not think Mr. Bush has a clear plan for bringing the involvement of the United States in Iraq to a successful conclusion.

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[ClintonTyree]

1. But...............

remember, THIS President doesn't govern by polls. Polls mean nothing to he and his advisors. He runs this country the way it SHOULD be run, and DAMN the polls! :puke:

[gristy]

2. Yeah, but many of his subjects are influenced by polls

They are not independent thinkers. If the "majority" opposes bush, then by gosh, they're going to oppose him too!

[LynzM]

3. That's what I was going to say

That it's the 'why would they report it except to influence people' idea. YOu know, John Q. Public really has no need for the polls, except to know what his fellow Americans are thinking, so he can think like them...

In this case, that works against Bush :)

[soothsayer]

4. I wonder why he spends $1 million or more on polls each year then. Huh.

Weird.

[izzie]

5. Lots of people just vote for a basic party line. In both parties,

What I find odd is that the Right Wing nuts seem to just vote for anything Bush wants. Even if it will hurt them. And these are the people who should know a one party country will mean a one type Christian religion. Bad business. You would think they would see it is so un-American to want to tell every one how they should think, but there they are. I am for letting them have a state all their own and they can leave us alone and tell each other what to do. What about Hatch giving up his state?