What goes up must come down
That old saying was never more true than in the case of Bush's job approval rating. After a momentary lapse of the American public's intelligence allowed George's approval rating to rise to 47% last week, 6 days later the Rasmussen numbers indicate that everyone's regained their sanity and Georgie's back down to 41% approval.
What happened? Historically the white house has been able to capitalize on these post-event poll bounces and keep the approval ratings up for far longer than a week. They did their best to make the nation unload in its collective pants: "If we leave Iraq, the terrorists will follow us and kill your family! They want to see your family dead! Picture your family dead!" yadda yadda. They even recycled some old lies about Iraq and 9/11, the better to exploit the 5-year anniversary and at the same time, garner some support fot their chickenshit war. It was a valiant effort, but it fizzled. Everyone pooped their pants and moved on, no point wallowing in it.
Bush didn't help himself with his idiotic interviews and press conferences. Apart from the element of the republican base that's not overburdened with brains, the bible-thumpers and cousin-humpers (props to Margaret Cho for that gem), nobody really wants to hear that we're in a clash of civilizations and a battle between good and evil. I think it makes people nervous to contemplate armageddon and the rapture. I think it makes people even more nervous to entertain the notion that the leader of the free world actually believes in all this crazy-ass shit. And for sure it makes many Americans righteously angry to see their fine country lowered to the ranks of shitholes like Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt, where torture is condoned.
It could be that the American public is finally getting wise. Not all of them, of course; to be sure there'll always be that segment of society that's so painfully oblivious to reality that they'll never get it. But for those still in possession of their senses, it could be that this whole 9/11-terror-terror thing is actually starting to work against the Bush administration. Because after all the grieving, honouring, and memorializing, it's hard not to look at the last 5 years and see the disastrous path they've taken the world down.
What happened? Historically the white house has been able to capitalize on these post-event poll bounces and keep the approval ratings up for far longer than a week. They did their best to make the nation unload in its collective pants: "If we leave Iraq, the terrorists will follow us and kill your family! They want to see your family dead! Picture your family dead!" yadda yadda. They even recycled some old lies about Iraq and 9/11, the better to exploit the 5-year anniversary and at the same time, garner some support fot their chickenshit war. It was a valiant effort, but it fizzled. Everyone pooped their pants and moved on, no point wallowing in it.
Bush didn't help himself with his idiotic interviews and press conferences. Apart from the element of the republican base that's not overburdened with brains, the bible-thumpers and cousin-humpers (props to Margaret Cho for that gem), nobody really wants to hear that we're in a clash of civilizations and a battle between good and evil. I think it makes people nervous to contemplate armageddon and the rapture. I think it makes people even more nervous to entertain the notion that the leader of the free world actually believes in all this crazy-ass shit. And for sure it makes many Americans righteously angry to see their fine country lowered to the ranks of shitholes like Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt, where torture is condoned.
It could be that the American public is finally getting wise. Not all of them, of course; to be sure there'll always be that segment of society that's so painfully oblivious to reality that they'll never get it. But for those still in possession of their senses, it could be that this whole 9/11-terror-terror thing is actually starting to work against the Bush administration. Because after all the grieving, honouring, and memorializing, it's hard not to look at the last 5 years and see the disastrous path they've taken the world down.
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