The photos of Lorenz walking around his pond followed by the ducklings, who clearly viewed him as parent, sum up the role Bush now holds in the American consciousness.
This imprinting usually occurs only in the wild. In the case of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, it happened in Manhattan. For George W Bush it took place on that crisis day in September when the fundamental instinct and need of Americans was for leadership. Bush was there. To break such a bond would require him to do something pretty awful. As generally favorable as this article is, comparing Bush voters to mindless ducklings is exasperating, even considering the audience to whom the author's writing. She does later make the key point, however: it is a difference in their policy preferences that determines the differences among groups in the electorate. The Republicans are preferable now-- in large part because of their unapologetic leadership in the face of our enemies. The same advantage accrued to Reagan and Bush in 1988, and the same division, weakness, and prevarication were the lot of the Democrats back then too.
In fact it flies in the face of the fact thart Americans are more intune than ever- Fox, Rush, the Internet, etc.) 2000 got us juiced up.