Posted on 01/03/2006 6:11:28 AM PST by conservativecorner
Oh dear, it happened again: By late fall, Democrats had talked themselves into the proposition that the Bush administration was, for all practical purposes, over and done with. A few scant weeks later, in fact just in time for Christmas, Mr. Bush was back, with a respectable and rising job-approval rating and momentum in the news cycle.
By now, this phenomenon has repeated itself sufficiently to warrant a generic analysis. So, here goes.
Consider late summer 2003 (on the eve of Mr. Bush's pressing the case for the Iraq war), spring 2004 (with the emergence of the Democratic presidential nominee), election day 2004, and fall 2005. In all these instances, Mr. Bush's standing in the polls was softening or worse. Moreover, the Democratic opposition seemed to be effective in landing political blows on the president, and the Bush White House seemed generally inadequate in its response.
In late summer 2003, the question was whether the administration was in a rush to go to war in Iraq without congressional approval and without international participation. In spring 2004, John Kerry was putting together a string of impressive victories in the Democratic primary and leading Mr. Bush handily in polls anticipating the November matchup. On election day 2004, early exit-poll "data" pointed to a huge Kerry upset over Mr. Bush. And in fall 2005, Mr. Bush's job approval fell to its all-time low in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and uncertainty in Iraq.
So, in all these cases, we have an "objective correlative": a reason for Democrats to think they were making headway. Mr. Bush had problems. It was no delusion on the part of Democrats to think so.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Rush calls it 'Rope-a-Dope'.
He's right.
I enjoyed the wise and judicious application of quotation marks in that sentence.
The word was not used once in the article. The diminishing of our President continues, even in a "pro-Bush" article.
I think the author meant the summer 2002 instead of 2003.
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