April 10, 2006

It seems like every time the President tours America making anew the discredited case for justifying war in Iraq, the rhetoric-weary American people place him at all time lows. Maybe, just maybe, it's because the American people are as smart as the very architect of the war in Iraq himself, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz.

Wolfowitz: -- there have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people.
The third one by itself, as I think I said earlier, is a reason to help the Iraqis but it's not a reason to put American kids' lives at risk, certainly not on the scale we did it.
[Paul Wolfowitz DoD Press Conference Transcript - 05-09-03]

And then there is the conservative fringe explanation for how we feel that insults America's intelligence in the same manner they mishandled intelligence justifying war in Iraq: stupid Americans are just living in an "Orwellian world" and are overwhelmingly "Bush-haters." At least the conservative fringe is consistent even in desperation.

President Bush's job approval rating is at a career low in this latest ABC News/Washington Post poll amid continued broad public skepticism about the Iraq war.

Just 38 percent of Americans now approve of Bush's overall performance in office; it's the lowest mark of his presidency, albeit by a single point. Sixty percent disapprove of how he's handling his job, matching the highest disapproval of his tenure.

One of the primary drags on the president's job approval rating has been the public's negative assessment of the war in Iraq, and in this poll 58 percent say the war was not worth fighting  a majority sentiment for the past 16 months.
[Bush Approval Rating at New Career Low - ABC - 04-10-06]