BUSH: LESS POPULAR THAN STALIN. Whenever I see approval ratings for President Bush, I always think of a Harper's Index stat printed in January of 2006 that compared Bush's popularity among Americans to Stalin's popularity among Russians. Of course, that statistic was printed 18 months ago, when the two ratings were neck-in-neck at 37%. So a new poll from Strategic Vision (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) finding Bush's latest rating at a dismal 19% puts our president a far cry below the iconic leader of an oppressive communist regime who systematically murdered millions through forced famines, labor camps, and political purges. Enough said. --Elisabeth Zerofsky
