[Verginius Rufus]

President Bush's poll numbers have been dismal ever since Katrina--if he had played that in a politically smart way, like Bill Clinton would have, he might have actually gained popularity from it. He refrained from putting the blame where most of it belonged--on the Democrat governor and mayor and on the Democrat local officials who had failed to make the levees strong enough.

Likewise with the financial meltdown--the Republicans didn't try to put the blame where it belonged. The public didn't know what to think and was willing to believe the Democrats' accusation that it was Bush's fault.

Little was made of national security this year--as if our enemies are going to stop trying to destroy us just because an apostate Muslim is President. Out of highmindedness, Bush never made an issue of Clinton's refusal to take Obama from the Sudan when they offered to hand him over--and in return, had Hillary waving a newspaper headline on the floor of the Senate suggesting that he had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and Bill & Hillary getting their henchmen Ben-Veniste and Gorelick on the 9/11 commission.

[RJL]

President Bush's poll numbers have been dismal ever since Katrina--if he had played that in a politically smart way, like Bill Clinton would have, he might have actually gained popularity from it. He refrained from putting the blame where most of it belonged--on the Democrat governor and mayor and on the Democrat local officials who had failed to make the levees strong enough.

Bush never had an unkind word for his political opponents or those that truly hated him, he saved the unkind words for his conservative voting base, we were "vigilantes" and we wouldn't "do what's right for America".

And that's how Bush got to a 25% approval rating.