The down trend in the suburbs is largely due to perceived incompetence of Bush regarding Katrina and Iraqi. For now, People don’t trust the Republicans to deal with serious problems. Its going to take a major screw up by the Messiah for things to start swinging our way again. We’ll know the answer that in the next 6 months. Despite the gloom and doom the Messiah is preaching, many Dem supporters think the economy will rebound in the fall. That is why the Messiah wants the stimulus to be passed quickly. So he can take credit for the economic rebound. OTOH, if the economy worsens, then the Messiah lose credibility.
This goes far beyond Dubya, this collapse has been going on since before he was elected President.