Here’s the report on the most recent Pew poll. The good news for President Bush is that the Alito nomination is going over well. The bad news is that the drumbeat of negative press coverage is taking a toll, especially on Iraq and the Wilson/Plame/Libby affair: 43% say that President Bush lied about WMDs and 44% say that the Libby affair is "of great importance" to the nation. The two numbers track very closely and the former is up 12% since February, 2004. Republicans and the White House need to go on the offense about the run-up to the war. Stephen F. Hayes can’t do it all himself.
I have two questions that spring to mind immediately: Who are the people being polled, and how did the pollsters manage to find such a huge collection of people who still listen to the "mainstream media" and *believe* it?
Oh, indeed!!! For instance, check out this shameless negative press coverage of Iraq. They put the number of dead right in the headline!! What are they doing, trying to help the terrorist insurgents?? If the press doesn’t shape up, there won’t be many Iraqis left to enjoy the blessings of democracy that have been provided to them from the collective altruistic American heart.
A president who cannot, or will not, preach the themes of his party in compelling terms leaves it open to the onslaughts of its enemies. Bush has failed as a spokesman for the Republican party; indeed, he has barely tried. On Tuesday, this finally caught up with the GOP. Next year may be much worse. If we don’t see a new GWB, it will be.
Why is it that you blame the press for his negative poll numbers, but then don’t credit the press for his good numbers? Seems lop-sided to credit any good news strictly to the merits of Bush and his actions but then scapegoating "the press" for any bad news or poll numbers, rather than allowing that the public might actually be perceptive. Clearly there are some Bush voters who were skeptical of the allegedly pro-Kerry press last year who are now turning against Bush. Kind of facile to think they were savvy then to the manipulative press reportage but are now falling for it.