Mehlman Speaks Of Character -- Now That's Funny

[Bob Geiger]

Of all the news I've read so far on this Sunday morning, the most unintentionally funny has to be the Associated Press (AP) story about the results of the most recent AP-Ipsos poll, in which they cite as the most relevant result, the fact that the majority of Americans consider character to be the most important element in selecting a president.

But that's not the funny part. What cracked me up was that the first person they quoted on that topic was none other than Ken Mehlman, the man who led the charge for George W. Bush in 2004.

"Voters only look at policies as a lens into what type of person the candidate is," said Ken Mehlman, chairman of President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. That campaign based its voter targeting and messaging strategies on the character-first theory.

Now how funny -- or sick -- is that?

Ken Mehlman, the former head of the Republican National Committee, the man who helped put the Bush-Cheney world-class lying team back in the White House, the man who went on television week after week to mislead and distort on their behalf and the man who did nothing to stop the Swift Boat Liars from attacking a highly-decorated war Veteran in John Kerry, commenting on character of all things.

I'm guessing Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham or Mark Foley weren't available to comment to the AP about the importance of character.

What the AP should have focused on were the results that showed that their reporting yesterday about the Bush Administration beginning to "unravel" in the eyes of the American public was as accurate as it could be. Here's the key parts of the AP-Ipsos poll, conducted Monday through Wednesday of last week:

• The country is on the "wrong track" according to 68 percent of poll respondents.

• Only 27 percent of Americans say they "strongly approve" or "somewhat approve" of the job Bush is doing as president.

• Bush's approval ratings are in the toilet across the board with the following key disapproval numbers: Handling of economy (57 percent), health care (61 percent), foreign policy and the war on terrorism (61 percent), and the Iraq war (66 percent).

And if the AP was going to focus on character, they should also have cited the results of the AP-AOL News poll done in January.

That one showed that only 44 percent of Americans believe Bush is honest.

Or, they could just do an investigative report on how 44 percent of Americans can still be so wrong.

You can read more from Bob at BobGeiger.com.