Friday, October 31, 2003  Here's a Fox news story on the most
recent US poll; it looks to me like anti-Bush sentiment hit its
peak during the summer and it's nosing ever so slightly
downward. Depending on how you measure it, more than half of
Americans approve of Bush--the poll says he has a 56% favorable
rating. The third year of a term is normally when a president
has his lowest ratings; during the last year the "excitement" of
the campaign tends to firm up support for the Prez. Bush has
made damned sure that no recession is going to torpedo him like
that one back in '91 torpedoed his daddy, so his financial
"negligence" has redounded to his short-term political benefit.
This is only smart if we can clean up Iraq within the next year.
I think Bush thinks we can, if that makes any sense. He's going
to need the people to be more or less happy with the economy if
he's going to get the support we're going to need to win the War
on Terrorism fairly quickly, at least that stage of it that's
being fought in Iraq.