Bush "Bounce", Like a Bad Check

On bended knee since the tactical, but not strategic, victory of the Zarqawi assination, media outlets have been repeating the myth and seeking some evidence of a Bush "Bounce".  They would have us believe that the American people will see, in the death of one murderer, justification for the most successful campaign to undermine the rights of the American people, the greatest effort to create an heredetary aristocrisy, and the most invidious military debacle in American history.

Geraldo Rivera came up empty when he went looking for Al Capone's treasure. Other right-wing pundits are having no better luck finding broad-based, American support for this extremist, radical, reactionary aganda.  No matter how many Al-qaeda #2's the Military gets, there's no cover for the President who allowed 9/11, bankrupted the government, and caused the greatest strategic blunder in American history.

The American people are smarter than Bush; smarter than his lapdog media.  Time Magazine reports:

Bush's approval rating slipped to 35% in a TIME poll taken this week, down from 37% in March (and 53% in early 2005). Only 33% of Americans in the survey said they approved of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, vs. 35% in March, and 47% in March 2005. His management of the U.S. economy lost supporters, too, as 36% approved, compared with 39% three months earlier. Bush's handling of the war on terror saw a slight gain in support, from 44% to 45%.

Bush's poll numbers remain stuck in a rut despite several high-profile victories scored recently by the Bush Administration. Earlier this month, U.S. forces killed al-Qaeda leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi in an air raid in Iraq. Also this month, Karl Rove escaped indictment in the CIA leak investigation. And the Commerce Department reported today that the U.S. economy grew 5.6% in the first quarter of 2006, the fastest growth in more than two years.

But continued pessimism about the situation in Iraq and a broad sense of unease about America's direction may be undermining Bush's popularity. In the TIME survey, 66% said the country is on the wrong track, vs. 28% who said it's going in the right direction. Those numbers have worsened since March, when the poll recorded a 60% to 34% split. When asked whether the new Iraqi government will be able to build a stable and reasonably democratic society, 48% of those surveyed said no, while 39% remain optimistic.

We've heard again and again since the Zarqawi assination that suddenly everything is ok in the world and that America suddenly loves Bush.  It astounds me how much the lapdog press is dying to deliver some kind of good news to their Bush Administration overlords, but so it goes.  The "backwash" third of the American public that still thinks America is going in the right direction has a lot of money and thus power over Government and the so-called "free" press. 

It's time for pundits to catch up with the American public and realize that spin isn't fact and Bush is an extremist right-wing success story, but an American disaster.

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