[mc6809e]

Bush is the right man for the nation. It's just that his staff is exhausted, which has caused him to make some political missteps since 2005.

The staff and the state of the staff are the responsibility of the president. They aren't assistant presidents that need time off. If there's a problem, Bush needs to do something about it.

[jmc1969]

Bush is a man who totally rewards loyality, which is why he refused to allow Rummy to resign even after he twice offered to resign because of mistakes.

[John Lenin]

Read it and weep.

But about that poll: By now, most people have heard that the sample was heavily weighted towards Democrats and Independents, but for the record:

- The sampling was of 1018 “adults.” Not “likely voters” or even “registered voters,” just adults, like my neighbor, the non-voting, non-registered recluse, who, when last asked what he wanted to see in a President, responded “a knife hilt.”

- The “unweighted” sample of Democrats was 409, to the Republican sample of 272. That’s a 40% to 27% ratio, with Independents rated at 33%. Once these samples were “weighted” --- which means they were adjusted to reflect the country’s general make-up --- the poll still reflected a bias towards Democrats by a margin of 37% to 28%, putting Independents at 35%.

[ItsForTheChildren]

So not the president is supposed to coordinate the vacation schedules of his subordinates and their reports? Oh, please. I'm tired of these people who expect the president to micromanage every damn little thing. Apparently W ought to be hauling trash out of New Orleans when he's not building new houses in Mississippi, toting an M-16 in Baghdad or sweeping for mines in Afghanistan when he's not personally leading the hunt for bin Ladin.

What the hell is the staff for? Perhaps the problem is Andy Card. Perhaps this goes all the way back to the lousy and rushed transition from when Gore attempted to steal the election in 2000. Perhaps it comes from Bush trusting people too much and believing in their "good intentions," leaving too many Clintonistas in place to screw him at every opportunity.

The senior staff is the responsibility of the president. Each senior staffer needs to take care of their own reports and not expect the president to.