Poor Dubya, nobody even wants to have a beer with him anymore

[dajoki]

U.S. News & World Report
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060424/24bush.htm

Yoo-hoo, Is Anyone Listening to Me?
Losing ground, even in the likability department
By Kenneth T. Walsh

4/24/06

Things aren't getting any easier for President Bush. Even his good-old-boy personality, which once was so appealing to so many Americans, seems to be wearing thin. His underlying problem, pollsters say, is that growing numbers of Americans question his competence and credibility. Only 38 percent of Americans approve of Bush's job performance, and--just as important--only 39 percent have positive feelings about him, according to an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll. "What you're seeing is a negative cycle," says a senior GOP strategist, "with bad news feeding on bad news, and it's having an effect."

At this point the direction of the polls--down--seems pretty well established, and Democrats contend that there has been a fundamental public shift in attitudes. "People used to see him as the kind of guy they'd like to have a beer with," says Matt Hogan, a Democratic public-opinion analyst for Democracy Corps. "They don't see him that way anymore. It used to be that while they didn't necessarily agree with his policies, they felt he talked straight and they could trust him. They don't trust him anymore." Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg says only 41 percent of Americans today feel warmly about Bush, compared with 50 percent who are cool to him. Just after the 9/11 attacks, 78 percent felt warmly about Bush; only 13 percent were cool toward him. "People don't like Bush now," Greenberg says. "There's a culture around him that is driving people away."

Day after day, the president's credibility has been under assault, even when the facts are in dispute. Last week, the Washington Post reported that in 2003 Bush declared that U.S. troops in Iraq had captured two trailers outfitted as mobile biological weapons labs even though a secret intelligence report at the time found the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan attacked the Post report as "reckless," saying it was a preponderance of intelligence, now seen to be erroneous, that led Bush to make the statement about the Iraqi trailers, not a desire to mislead anyone. In another episode, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker that Bush has accelerated Pentagon planning for attacks on Iran's nuclear sites, including potential use of nuclear "bunkerbuster" bombs, a story the administration tried to shoot down as "speculation."

All this came on the heels of the disclosure that Bush authorized the declassification and release of information about prewar Iraq's nuclear capabilities in order to discredit critics like former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Democrats quickly condemned Bush as a hypocrite because he has been a longtime critic of leaks. Even more damaging is news that a growing number of retired senior military officers have turned against Bush's Iraq policy--which has become the biggest political millstone around his neck--and are calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's replacement.

[Journeyman]

1. A beer with the schmuck wasn't a good idea when it was a 'good idea'. . .

here's The Onion's take on how awkward and unsatisfying that experience would prove. . .


http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42590

Long-Awaited Beer With Bush Really Awkward, Voter Reports

November 16, 2005 | Issue 41•46 | Special Section: Food and Dining

WARREN, PA—Although respondents to a Pew poll taken prior to the 2004 presidential election characterized Bush as "the candidate they'd most like to sit down and have a beer with," Chris Reinard lived the hypothetical scenario Sunday afternoon, and characterized it as "really uncomfortable and awkward."

Reinard, a father of four who supported Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections, said sharing a beer with the president at the Switchyard Tap gave him "an uneasy feeling."

"I thought he'd be great," Reinard said. "But when I actually met him, I felt real put off."

<snip>

Bush asked Reinard what he did for a living, and Reinard said he runs a small carpentry business.

"He asked me how it was going, what with the economy bouncing back. I said that if things didn't pick up soon, I was going to have to close up shop and work for my uncle in Youngstown," Reinard said. "George was quiet for a while after that. Then he told me about when his second oil company was going under. He suggested using my connections to get some outside investment capital."

"I don't have any connections," Reinard added.

<more>

[dajoki]

2. Great story & picture!!

[kestrel91316]

4. I like how Bush has got that bottle turned so the camera catches that

it's O'Doul's. Betcha it's actually full of straight Jack Daniels, too.

[Ino]

5. The photo is hilarious!

They have NOTHING in common. Dimson thinks everyone has a rich daddy to bail them out!

[dajoki]

12. A picture says a thousand words n/t

[DetroitProle]

9. yes

This encapsulates everything I have always known about Bush.
Fake persona to win over Joe Sixpack. Yet has no real connection or interest in Joe Sixpack. He has no idea what Joe Sixpack has to go through, nor does he particularly care. He's a phoney. A spoiled, lazy, rich kid. His real friends are the coroporate bigwigs, certainly not the average American, and not even the religious right. They're just pawns in the corporate-Republican game.

[dorktv]

10. well now, Bush should have said "let me use mine to help you."

but that would be a Clinton thing to do. And Bush is no Clinton.

[AndyTiedye]

3. The Sort of Guy You Want to Pour a Beer On

[dajoki]

6. YES!! LOL

[ReadTomPaine]

7. Who the heck likes to drink with an alcoholic? n/t

[dajoki]

8. Why the fuck is an alcoholic drinking?

[Frank Cannon]

13. He's drinking a non-alcoholic O'Doul's

Supposedly.

Note how he has the label uncovered and turned toward you so that you see that.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. I'll have a beer with him

I'll have lots of beers with him. As long as all the major networks film it and show the film on the evening news.

[0007]

14. Argh.....