From ABC News:
The recent elections in Iraq and an improved economic outlook at home have shifted public support in the president’s direction, lifting him from career lows in his job performance and personal ratings alike.
[…]
Overall, 47 percent of Americans in this ABC News/Washington Post poll now approve of George W. Bush’s work in office; 52 percent disapprove. While hardly robust, that is up from a career low 39-60 percent in early November to its best in nearly six months.
The president’s recent speechmaking on Iraq may have helped him. But public opinion tends to move on the basis of facts on the ground rather than political pronouncements, and the most striking change in this poll is linked to last week’s successful elections in Iraq.
Specifically, belief that the United States is making significant progress toward establishing a democratic government in Iraq has jumped dramatically, by 18 points, to 65 percent. A sense of progress in establishing civil order similarly is up, by 16 points, to 60 percent. Each is its best since these questions first were asked in the spring of 2004.
Moreover  in a view held by majorities across party lines  71 percent of Americans believe the Iraqi elections have moved the United States closer to the day U.S. forces can be withdrawn. Fifty-four percent express optimism about Iraq in the year ahead, eight points more than at this time last year. And 56 percent think the United States is winning the war, a recent theme of the president’s, up slightly from 51 percent in August.
ABC suggests that the President’s recent pushback likely had less effect than facts on the ground, but of the way facts on the ground are reported had everything to do with the President’s willingness to pushback against an uninterrupted stream of bad (or, at best, carefully finessed) news coming out of Iraq.
These numbers suggest that Bush has won back many of his supporters—again, I’d argue, a function of his offensive. His weakness among conservatives has always been based on his domestic spending and the immigration; but his public willingness to show resolve on national security—and to fight back forcefully against a campaign of persistant Democratic attacks—will almost certainly keep his approval ratings in the upper forties.
Meanwhile, the Dean-led DNC released yet another statement calling Bush a liar. Via Byron York:
With his credibility in tatters, President Bush may have fielded questions, but he failed to explain why he may have ignored both federal law and the Constitution in ordering the NSA to spy on Americans. This disturbing abuse of power has become a disturbing hallmark of the Bush administration over the past five years. The President now seems to be hiding behind a false claim that he briefed members of Congress.
In the spirit of the President’s newfound candor, we call upon him to correct the record, explain why members of Congress were left in the dark and support an investigation into this secret spying program…
[my emphasis]
Senator Jay Rockefeller, who sent a letter to Dick Cheney with regard to his briefings on the program, could not be reached for comment.
Harry Reid was spinning so hard on Fox with Chris Wallace yesterday about congressional oversight of the NSA, I swore I could feel the rotation of the earth slow ever so much.
Bush sure isn’t acting or sounding like a president who’s worried that he was caught doing something illegal.
This will turn out to be another Jeff Gannon “scandal.” It may actually do more damage to the Dems because their leadership all knew about it, plus the Echelon System authorized by Clinton allowed the NSA to do much broader surveillance of American citizens.
http://cryptome.org/echelon-60min.htm
explain why members of Congress were left in the dark
Ummm…some members can’t be trusted with classified information????
Evidently, Fucktard Dean thinks that if he just yells ‘liar’ loud enough, then Americans will start coming around.
Dean is a gift. He guarantees Republican control indefinitely.
I wish I were that optimistic: When the president’s ratings improve by half in a couple weeks, and when the MSM has recently again been proved the socialist hive it is, then we can see that yelling liar—and McHitlerChimpy/Haliburton/Cheny—loud enough is precisely what works when you’re completely intellectually bankrupt.
Dean wouldn’t exist if not for that koolaid.
Charles Rangel compared Bush to Marcos yesterday to Wolf Blitzer.
The Dems have a bit of a bubble problem themselves, do they not?
In the part of America where I grew up, calling someone a liar was a slur more likely to reflect poorly on the one slinging the term around. They need to remember that.
Sounds like a quagmire for the defeatocrats. And the brutal northeast winter is only just setting in. Sux to be dem.
Evidently, Fucktard Dean thinks that if he just yells ‘liar’ loud enough, then Americans will start coming around.
That, OR they have nothing left in the bag-o-spin to say. It is pretty uncreative and yawnish. Bush is confident, he’s had a year to prepare for this onslaught….just can’t shake that feeling deep inside of me….rope-a-dope.
Those are devastating numbers. Just devastating.
It’s a waste of breath discussing wether Bush is a liar or the question of WMD.
The Jihadist terrorist movement is a far more serious threat than most people realize.
These criminals were in the process of gassing Kurd villages and moving in for the plunder the following day. They had hundreds of anti-gas suits stashed in a hospital.
No need to discuss lies and WMD.
They must be stopped. These princes of the 72 virgins take over schools and start shooting the children when things don’t go exactly as they wish.
The Jihadist monster has no head with which to negotiate. Cells just pop up anywhere a group of people feel miffed. A group of five convicts who met in a San Diego mosque were discovered by accident when one dropped a cellphone during a gas bar stick-up.
The phone led to an apartment where weapons and ammo were found along with a list of government building targets.
Iranian and Saudi leaders enjoy a total grip on absolute gun barrel power and all the endless wealth and influence that goes with it.
The only threat to their absolute power in the lap of endless riches and excess is *DEMOCRACY*.
Since their wealth is without limit, common sense suggests the war against Jihad will be dangerous, expensive and long term.
We can not afford to pull punches now. Not if we value freedom at all.
Common sense ..eh? TG
From part of the first sentence:
Really? Thanks for telling me. I didn’t know!
tw: <i>changes<blockquote> – not bloody likely, mate.
Boss429  Oh, come on, Senator Leahy only got one CIA agent killed with his leaks…
The only threat to their absolute power in the lap of endless riches and excess is *DEMOCRACY*.
Since their wealth is without limit, common sense suggests the war against Jihad will be dangerous, expensive and long term.
We can not afford to pull punches now. Not if we value freedom at all.
Now if we could just find a workable example of this Democracy you speak of…
When referring to a conspiracy, it’s helpful to spell the conspirators’ names properly.
And pay your host for your pointless website…
Parenthetical statement omitted from the ABC story due to what the NYT euphimistically calls an “editing error”:
“The recent elections in Iraq and an improved economic outlook at home (that occurred 10 quarters ago and about which we haven’t really had much to say) have shifted public support in the president’s direction, lifting him from career lows in his job performance and personal ratings alike.”
Jeff, new series: “The omitted parenthetical statement.”
Damn this remembrin’ software! The scotch tonight is on the rocks.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
The point of interest in today’s speech for me and other dedicated evils was when the president said, he “would let the judiciary take care of the matter, let the process work”. That suggests to us that the president knows the identity of the leakers. Is he calm and confident because the leakers are congressmen or CIA vendetta agents, and that will make the NYT and the Dems look very, very bad?
Or because (as we will vociferously assert) he has the judiciary sewn up and they will make no finding he does not desire.
I’ve noticed an interesting, yet persistent, pattern the last few years. Whenver Bush puts himself out front in the press his poll numbers go up. When he doesn’t, his poll numbers drift downward. Whenever top democrats put themselves out front in the press their poll numbers go down. When they don’t, they’re poll numbers drift upward.
What this implies about both and about the tilt of the press I’ll leave to others to interpret.
ha ha, topsecret9 and i are pulling the same vibe.
i smell a trap.
Don’t want to offend, but Deibold asks about a workable democracy.
My point is any broken down democracy is better than hanging a few waifs in the local soccer field each week to keep citizens in line.
Robert Crawford’s thin skin can’t stand poor spelling. Boy are you going to be annoyed if your local refinery or hydro dam gets blown.
Hoodlumman, pay host for pointless website? Is that some kind of secret code?
Lucy Moonstone, Excellent sweetie, You suspect, but we in Canada are certain our crooked PM Paul Martin has the judiciary sewn up.
See guys, Lucy expressed an opinion.
Scotch Beach Sex.. Your comment is interesting and rings true. Editing error indeed!
For a colossal editing error you can’t do better than the Dec 16th Washington Times where Douglas MacKinnon fans Canadian / USA hatred, using the term *millions* on the basis of stupid anti-US words from our corrupt PMinister Martin who is only talking tough to get re-elected and a flakey MP Parrish who stomped a little Bush doll in a TV comedy skit.
We Canadians mostly love you guys or we would not spend the winter living in Florida, Texas, Arizon and southern California. I’m especially nuts about Corpus Christi, Padre Island, Port Isabelle and even dusty Brownsville.
We also dip below the Canadian border and spend $Millions in towns like Bellingham Washington or Plattsburg New York.
Please give Douglas MacKinnon and the Washington Times hell for me… OK?
MacKinnon is a long time ex-Canadian, a one time press secretary for Bob Dole and is either nuts, or has some sort of axe to grind. TG
Lucy Monostone – sounds familiar – then it hit me! Miike Takashi, right?
Did the wolfster clap his little hands together with glee on camera or off?
I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to “Deibold”, who appears to be a whiner about Diebold, the company that makes a lot of voting machines. The lefties fervently believe their poor showing at the polls is partly due to a conspiracy involving Diebold to rig the machines.
Never mind the horrid candidates, or that the areas with the most voting problems are Democrat run…
The part that bugs me is this:
Are people in this country that fickle?
How can polls veer that much in a short time? Do people one day say, “I don’t trust the president”, then one week later say, “I do trust the president”?
How can attitudes change from one extreme to the next, in such a short time. Say what you want about libs, but at least they’re consistent.
TV (Harry)
Poll: Bush’s Approval Ratings Climb
Well what do you expect? Now that we know that Chimpy is spying on us, of course we have to say happy things about him.
I offer that up to Kos or Atrios as the new spin. It certainly makes more sense than anything they’ll come up with.
very good, RS.
but i am not interested in DNA viruses for the barcoders here.
i’m interested in spreading memetic viruses on the ‘net.
With his credibility in tatters, President Bush may have fielded questions, but he failed to explain why he may have ignored both federal law and the Constitution in ordering the NSA to spy on Americans.
Dean wants Bush to explain that mirage in the desert. Long live the man from Castle Arrggghhh.
An obveous manipallation of the rightleaning medias by EVIL Bush and SLIMY Rove. The TRUE Patriots in REALITY based America will see threw these trick and kick the rethugz from offise when elections roll around in 2009. Just se if we dont!
If this election will hasten US withdrawal, so much the better.
By the way, wonder when those 30,000 troops will be withdrawn, now that Iraq has had its election?
***
As to that election, it now looks like the Shia religious parties will control the new parliament.
Won’t that be a nice outcome.
2,100 US KIAs; and all we have to show for it is a Shia dominated legislature.
Which will really go over well with the Sunnis; yes, that US sponsered election in Iraq will surely make things better.
The Sunnis are going to be so happy that they’ll put away their AK47, hangup their grenades and put thier rocket launchers in their attics.
Bomb-making will sure to go out of style in Iraq, now that they have a Shia parliement.
And of course with Shia control of the Iraq parliement, Iraq will be in no danger whatsoever of becoming an ally of (say) Iran, will it?
***
So much for US intervention in the Middle East.
Way to go Neocons….
Carl, you’re tkaing the same approach that the MSM did to Katrina. Turned out they were completely and willfully wrong. So are you.
Anybody else starting to wonder if Carl is a pissed-off Sunni? Sorta sounds that way to me.
Thank you for your ever-constructive thoughts,
EeyoreDebbie DownerCarl. In a competitive job market, it’s nice to know I’m up against a real go-getter problem-solver like yourself. I know my dreams of a marijuana-production empire under cover of “working on the classic American novel” in my parents’ basement are one step closer to fruition with competition from the likes of you. A real day-brightener, you are.Why do you want troops out of Iraq, Carl?
Because that’s what the Chomskybot spit out.
Regards,
Carl W. (Bartleby) Goss
Carl,
Is it all non-whites you feel cannot govern themselves without help or just the camel-jockeys?
This is turning out to be the worst Not-christmas for the Democrats in a very long time.
I choose to wilfully ignore the fact that now all groups in Iraq have representation, and the majority group is represented by the most…um…representatives.
I choose to ignore the fact that the Sunnis were blowing people up and terrorizing the country BEFORE the war. If they do continue to do so afterwards, I’d have to be a troglodyte to imagine it is because of America.
My head is in my ass. Little help here?
Tongueboy, What makes you think Bush ordered NSA to spy on Americans? Guess you meant he failed to order them to stop and desist ..eh?
That’s been going on since before Bush Sr.
Remember, information about a possible 9/11 existed before it happened. It simply did not sift up through the mountain of info in time.
Inspector Calahan, I agree with you that polls are virtually useless and can not be trusted.
There is no National Bureau of Standards for polls, after all, and even if the exact question were always listed,[ usually missing], the pre-amble can be designed to get a lop-sided result.
TG
TonyGuitar, not sure what comment you are referring to. Are you referring to someone else’s comments, perhaps?
You said ordering NSA to spy on Americans…10:40
There are several things about Protein Wisdome that make it very appealing.
As a Canadian with limited time, I can’t expect you all to take any special interest in Canadian politics, but the very real scams and scandals are so wild they will outstrip good fiction writing any day.
The comments feed back from Protein Wisdom makes it possible to stay in touch by Email while getting things done.
When politicians in Canada slag the USA, remember they are only posturing tough to get votes.
Politicians will say anything to win brownie points. When Paul Martin or other Liberanos speak, that’s not at all the same as *millions of Canadians*. What a crock that is.
TG
Domo arigato, Lucy-chan.
I’m just relieved you didn’t identify with Kakihara.
TonyGuitar,
The italics were a quote from the weasel-worded DNC press release. Dean and the DNC appear to be asking Bush why he took an action that in their opinion may, but is not certain to, be illegal. I likened this to asking someone to explain a phenomenon that may, but is not certain to, exist called a “mirage”. Maybe I was reaching a bit on the analogy…
Yes, that was a reach. An analogy must be within my grasp to quaify as a *true* analogy.
That way everybody’s bound to get it ..eh? TG