The new Washington Post poll bears so much bad news for Bush that you'd think he was the Republican Congress (thanks folks, I'll be here all week). 58% of those interviewed said Bush was focusing on partisan squabbles and issues that weren't important to them. Much of that comes from Bush's obsessive focus on radical judicial nominees, an issue the average American follows with the same urgency he brings to tracking developments in cheese-grating technology. More to the electoral point, 68% of independents said they disagreed with the president's priorities, meaning Bush needs to either really rework his public image or keep his head down during the midterm elections. After all, presidents with a 52% disapproval rating should be neither seen nor heard, at least if they want their party to win any seats.
Bottom line here is that the judicial fight made Bush look small. Folks didn't understand why it got so much attention, why it aroused so much passion, and how it could possibly be more important than health care. Social Security privatization, after Bush admitted it wouldn't help the program's solvency, seemed similarly out of touch. Worse, as all these issues enter the cable show ring and become fodder for midlevel partisan flacks to land blows on each other, the issues themselves begin to seem smaller, less worthy, unimportant. They take on the playground scuffle character of the programs debating them and, eventually, that filters up to the president demanding that all these fights by the slide take place, making him look small and artisan as well. Which he is.
