Item: Iran "ready to talk" to US; Bolton: "We have nothing to say."
In a nutshell, this encapsulates the incompetence and arrogance of the current administration. Because when someone is ready to talk to you, you don't HAVE to have anything to say. All you have to do, is listen.

Bolton's comment betrays an attitude that nothing of consequence on any issue muight emminate from the mouths of anyone else outside the administration; if it isn't from us, it isn't worth hearing. And too, listening is one of the most valuable leadership skills... and one we learned long ago, and many times over, this administration lacks.

And this guy is our top diplomat. Grand.

Item: Bush approval in the low 30s.
Three separate polls; 36%, 35%, 33%. And these weren't polls with a heavy "no opinion;" all three had disapproval in the 60s. And we're talking Pew, CNN Gallop, and the NY Times.

We've said it here before, but we'll say it again. The Katrina debacle was the beginning of the end for this administration. Until then, the "middle 40%" was largely supportive of the president. (30% of the electorate, we figure, are hard left; another 30% are hard right. The middle 40% decides elections.) Sure, they may have felt troubled by the Iraq war, by the WMD fiasco, by any of a number of wrong-headed policies (the Patriot Act, the gutting of the environment, the no-bid contracts to Haliburton, the government subservience to the lunatic fringe Religious Right, the incomprehensible border protection policy, or lack thereof.) But through it all, the middle 40% felt like at least these guys seem to know what they're doing; they seemed like leaders, like they are competent. They sounded good, and they wore nice suits.

But Katrina gave lie to that dangerous misconception, and ever since, everything the president has done actually looks as dumb as it is. Quite literally, the emperor no longer has any clothes. Take the Dubai ports controversy, for example. How tone deaf could this administration possibly be? Maybe 18 months ago Bush could have gone on TV, said something about freedom and evil-doers, called his opponents traitors, and this thing would get pushed through. But now he can't even muster support on the right for his bonehead moves. I mean, could Republicans in congress BE running away from the president faster on this one? Again, the twin themes of incompetence and arrogance, with the latter exacerbating the former. For 5 years, that formula worked; the arrogance covered up the incompetence. Post-Katrina, things have changed-- and everyone seems to know it save for the president, his closest advisors-- and a third of the population.

Item: Russ Feingold moves to censure the president.
And the dems in the senate hang him out to dry. The reps call this political grandstanding. Well, the senator from Wisconsin, who also had the stones and the conviction to oppose the Patriot Act, has, in my view, grandstanded himself right into the pole position for the '08 nomination.

Item: how dumb are the democrats?
If Hillary ends up with the '08 nomination, we'll have our answer.

Labels: The politics