memo to w: it's over

In today's New York Times, Frank Rich writes: "Someone Tell The President the War is Over".
Like the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?

A president can't stay the course when his own citizens (let alone his own allies) won't stay with him. The approval rate for Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq plunged to 34 percent in last weekend's Newsweek poll - a match for the 32 percent that approved L.B.J.'s handling of Vietnam in early March 1968. (The two presidents' overall approval ratings have also converged: 41 percent for Johnson then, 42 percent for Bush now.) On March 31, 1968, as L.B.J.'s ratings plummeted further, he announced he wouldn't seek re-election, commencing our long extrication from that quagmire.

But our current Texas president has even outdone his predecessor; Mr. Bush has lost not only the country but also his army. Neither bonuses nor fudged standards nor the faking of high school diplomas has solved the recruitment shortfall. Now Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that the armed forces are so eager for bodies they will flout "don't ask, don't tell" and hang on to gay soldiers who tell, even if they tell the press.
Read the rest here.

Comments

  1. Anonymous14 August 2005 at 13:37

    I'm all for Bush staying his present course, which involves his popularity sinking by five percentage points every week. If he keeps on that course, we may even get that overdue impeachment we've been hoping for...

    ReplyDelete
  2. laura k14 August 2005 at 13:48

    Sadly, impeachment has nothing to do with popularity. His own party would have to turn against him en masse, and I see no evidence of that happening. Although I'd love to be wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  3. James Redekop16 August 2005 at 06:55

    Ah, but if he continues to self-destruct at this rate, the 2006 elections could (if the Dems actually got their act together) cost him Congress and/or the Senate. Then we might (if the Dems actually got a couple of spines between them) see some justice done.

    Unfortunately, I can't put a lot of faith in the Dems doing the right thing these days.

    ReplyDelete
  4. laura k16 August 2005 at 16:57

    Unfortunately, I can't put a lot of faith in the Dems doing the right thing these days.

    No, you can't. Because they don't.

    Then there's a little thing called fixed elections.

    ReplyDelete

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