“Free-Fall Over” Department

Mark Murray, Political reporter for MSNBC said this morning, “Since his second inauguration in January, President Bush has seen a steady decline in his overall job performance, the economy, and Iraq. But the free-fall appears to be over, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.” Murray went on to say, “an overwhelming majority backs Bush’s stance that the United States should not immediately withdraw all of its troops from Iraq.” Wishful Thinking Section The new NBC/WSJ poll says 39 percent of the people polled are “more confident the war in Iraq will come to a successful conclusion”. However, as we all are becoming increasingly aware, answers depend on how questions are asked. “More confident” does not mean, “I am convinced”. Bush’s approval rating is up one percentage point since the last NBC/WSJ poll. For the White House to crow over the fact that 53% percent of the people in the United States DISAPPROVE of the way the President is performing his role, is looking for the pony when a pile of horseshit is found in the living room. It was only a year ago that the wishful-thinkers in the White House claimed Bush’s narrow percentage point win (fraud) over Kerry was a “mandate”. Now, the White House has thrown all its hopes for Bush to save his presidency on the war in Iraq. Today’s elections in Iraq are more important to the Bush administration (according to the White House reckoning of priorities) than the upcoming elections in the US in 2006. It is imperative to the White House that the Sunnis win today. CNN reported this morning, “Last January Sunni Arabs, who were in power under Hussein, stayed away from the polls, paving the way for a government dominated by Shiite Arabs and Kurds and disliked by Sunni Arabs…U.S. and Iraqi officials are hopeful that greater Sunni participation in a post-Hussein government will quell the Sunni-dominated insurgency.” Today we’re hearing a lot of quotes from the top US diplomat in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, not so much from the Iraqi transitional President Jalal Talabani. Khalilzad said “the Sunni Arab participation appears better than during the January election and the constitutional referendum in October…people arrived to polls with families ‘almost like going to a wedding.’ But the BIG little quote from Khalilzad was this one: Khalilzad noted that "the success in integrating the Sunni Arab community into the political process was a factor that would contribute to the start of a (US troop) pullout.” AHA!!!!! There it is. If the Sunni’s win, we can begin to pull the troops out of Iraq and then the President Bush can have it both ways. As Jimmy Durante sang in the “The Man Who Came to Dinner” movie, “Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go, and still have the feeling that you wanted to stay?” Christiane Amanpour, reporting for CNN, said “the people (Sunnis) are saying they made a mistake by shunning the January election and want their voices to be heard.” So whaddaya think? The White House wants the Sunnis to win so the US can begin a pullout, will the Sunnis win? Oh you can bet your sweet yellow-dog Democrat ass on that and take it to the bank. But will that save Bush from a political fate worse than death? Not a chance.