If the Democrats in your life seem exceptionally surly this morning, cut them some slack. Life hasn’t been too easy for them. First, there is this news:
President Bush’s standing with the public has improved since his surprise Thanksgiving trip to Iraq amid signs of a stronger economy and following congressional passage of a prescription drug benefit under Medicare.
Bush’s job approval was at 61 percent in the National Annenberg Election Survey conducted the four days after the holiday, up from 56 percent during the four days before Thanksgiving. Disapproval of the president dropped from 41 percent to 36 percent, according to the poll released Tuesday.
If that were not bad enough, then they get hit with this nugget:
Ralph Nader has not yet decided whether to make another run for the White House, but he’s authorized a new exploratory committee to raise money for a potential bid.
The Nader 2004 Presidential Exploratory Committee was formed in late October as part of the consumer activist’s effort to gauge support for a run, said Theresa Amato, a committee director.
“He is using it to test the waters,” said Amato, who served as Nader’s national campaign manager when he ran for president on the Green Party ticket in 2000. She said the organization is part of Nader’s overall strategy of “talking to people, calling people, seeing what level of support there is.”
Cut ’em some slack, ok?
Andrew Lazarus
“President Bush’s standing with the public has improved since his surprise Thanksgiving trip to Iraq…”
So, are we allowed to speculate (1)that this is not just a temporal but also a causal relationship; (2) the likelihood of this is one of the points considered when deciding on the trip?
Or is that all unpatriotic extremism?
John Cole
I would think that means they did not do any polls in the interim period, and that is about all I would really gather from it. If you want to think that the economy and the Prescription Drug Benefit had nothing to do with the increase in approval, that is your call.
Kimmitt
It pains me to admit this, but this is one of those four times when Bush deserves credit for doing something good.
Andrew Lazarus
Oh, I think (in order of weight) (1) economy, (2) visit, (3) drug benefit all helped boost Pres. Bush’s poll standing. My point, of course, is that everyone allows the possibility Bush supported the drug benefits expecting a political benefit or even because of it, but they’re reluctant to say that about the visit.
To my mind, this is quite independent of whether the underlying action is meritorious (visit, yes; messed-up entitlement act, no).
John Cole
Andrew- I agree. Reasonable Democrats and Republicans can disagree whether the trip was more Pr or more the right thing to do, but my bone of contention is with the Atrios left. They see this merely as a stunt that either has no merit, was designed to make him not look like a coward, or as an attempt to upstage Hillary. There is no willingness to cede that this is precisely the type of thing that ANY commander in chief is supposed to do- and that just pisses me off to no end.
HH
Well, the Yglesias left anyway. Then there are the likes of Joe Lockhart, who used this occasion to lie about Bush and military families.