New polls assessing public sentiment regarding the job performance of President Bush indicate the lowest approval of his entire tenure. Like the flip side of the Stock Market watch with news of daily historical highs, the public approval of George W. Bush's handling of the presidency continually seems to reach daily historic lows. Multiple polls currently yield identical results, lending credibility to the assessment. At overall approval running about 35%, it is fair to say that only about 1/3 of the Nation approves of the job GWB is doing. An interesting observation is that the disapproval runs across virtually all areas of competence and responsibility that the President is charged with. On domestic issues and the environment, approval barely reaches 30%.
The stock market is a curious beast, and it is difficult to explain its current rises toward levels close to that of five years ago at the inception of the Bush administration. Whether the buying binge is a sign of confidence in the future course of the economy, or a doomsday mentality of investors trying to make as much as they can quickly, before the bottom falls out, is unclear. If one looks at economic indicators, the relatively low interest rates could encourage investment in both stocks and in business equipment and machinery. Most of the "new jobs" allegedly created by the Bush administration, which continue to grow at rates less than projected, have been minimum wage, menial or hourly labor jobs. Only recently have reports begun to appear suggesting that employers are hiring middle managers. The looming presence is the national debt. After just raising the debt ceiling by about 900 Billion dollars to nearly 9 Trillion dollars, the interest tab the US government must pay on that debt consumes an increasing share of the annual budget. In essence, the funds we are paying in taxes and fees are increasingly going to pay debt rather than for infrastructure, services to the public or anything productive.
The Iraq invasion seems to be crawling out from under a rock in the view of the public. Bush administration propaganda, media negligence and inattention have kept many from seeing the "mission" for the ill conceived and even more poorly executed debacle that it is. Only yesterday I heard a caller on a NPR radio talk show concede that there "probably" were no WMD's and biological weapons in Iraq when the invasion began. It is doubtful that he is the only person remaining who has not read the comprehensive documentation and heard the President's concession that there were none. Propaganda and high powered, well financed PR spin machines are effective tools that have been used to fool the public. This explains why we still see Bush making public speeches that are clearly misleading and more frequently outright lies. He is not preaching to the intelligencia, he is seeking to reinforce the brainwashing that has been accomplished during Karl Rove's tenure and Minister of mind control.
In a recent news conference, when asked about the stalled effort and civil war situation in Iraq, Bush used the old snake oil salesman's retort - "Are you going to believe me, or your lying eyes?" He tells the public that things are improving despite the fact that all independent reports and even a substantial number of administration reports suggest the exact opposite. He says that people who say he wanted war are wrong, when a mountain of evidence shows that the invasion was not necessary and that there was no immediate or imminent threat from Iraq, Saddam Hussein or anyone in the Hussein regime in Iraq. Again, he says that his vision of leadership is to "stay the course" until "victory" is achieved. Whether he is deceitful or delusional, the influence of the President to get people to believe the unbelievable and accept lies as truth is on the wane.
You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time. But it does appear that you can't fool all of the people all of the time. And with mid-term elections closing in this November, more and more GOP congressional representatives are coming down from their acid trips and beginning to look at the world with eyes free of hallucinogens and recognize that their political survival depends upon responding to the world as it really is, instead of the fantasy created by the Bush PR machine.
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