A Very Respectable Performance
As Morton Kondracke reports, there is plenty of evidence that President Bush has some bragging rights when it comes to recent developments.
** In Iraq, Kondracke notes U.S. casualty levels are down to their lowest levels since 2003, Iraqi security force deaths are at their lowest level ever, and civilian deaths in September were down 77 percent below the level of last year.
** The federal budget deficit is half of what it was two years ago and that in September job growth had continued for 49 months, a new record.
**Bush's Medicare prescription drug program last year cost $4 billion less than forecast owing to competitive forces that Democrats oppose and some school test scores are up, assertedly thanks to No Child Left Behind.
**Bush evidently has convinced House Democrats not to complicate relations with Turkey by passing an Armenian genocide resolution, and the White House thinks it can win a battle over terrorist surveillance policy. (Update: The Washington Post reports that the compromise surveillance bill is a victory for the President.)
Coming from Kondracke -- one of the truly middle-of-the-road, straight-shooting reporters out there -- all this is significant. But it is also true, as he observes, that the polls for Bush are still pretty bad.
It may well be that, once again, polls are a lagging indicator. When the President's poll numbers begin to reflect all this good news (assuming it's reported) and rise, what will happen to the Democratic Congress' numbers? And if those stay in the basement, what does that mean for next year's elections?
** In Iraq, Kondracke notes U.S. casualty levels are down to their lowest levels since 2003, Iraqi security force deaths are at their lowest level ever, and civilian deaths in September were down 77 percent below the level of last year.
** The federal budget deficit is half of what it was two years ago and that in September job growth had continued for 49 months, a new record.
**Bush's Medicare prescription drug program last year cost $4 billion less than forecast owing to competitive forces that Democrats oppose and some school test scores are up, assertedly thanks to No Child Left Behind.
**Bush evidently has convinced House Democrats not to complicate relations with Turkey by passing an Armenian genocide resolution, and the White House thinks it can win a battle over terrorist surveillance policy. (Update: The Washington Post reports that the compromise surveillance bill is a victory for the President.)
Coming from Kondracke -- one of the truly middle-of-the-road, straight-shooting reporters out there -- all this is significant. But it is also true, as he observes, that the polls for Bush are still pretty bad.
It may well be that, once again, polls are a lagging indicator. When the President's poll numbers begin to reflect all this good news (assuming it's reported) and rise, what will happen to the Democratic Congress' numbers? And if those stay in the basement, what does that mean for next year's elections?
posted by LadybugUSA at 10:20 AM
3 Comments:
Bush will go down in history as the greatest president since Reagan, who was the greatest president since Lincoln.
Without question Greg!
I think one of the most amazing things about Bush is how he has kept his cool. Under constant, hysterical attack from Democrats and the media, he never succumbed to despair (no "I'm still relevent" moments)and NEVER stooped to their level. He simply maintained the rightness of his policy and continued to implement it.
Once it's clear that his radical, new foreign policy has been necessary and successful, this steadfastness under pressure will be heralded as a key to his success and something to be emulated.
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