As Neil noted below, Ezra asked us:
I'm interested in the idea that, if Bush asked for sacrifice, a one time tax increase, a something -- if he said he and his VP and his cabinet would lead it by foregoing salaries for the year -- his numbers would skyrocket. Why, then, doesn't he do that? Why is this admin so allergic to sacrifice, to tax increases, to all of it? I don't think it's ideology -- they're more craven, and have proved themselves to willing to contradict conviction for that. So what is it? Just an ethical failure?
Like Neil, I'm not sure that Bush's poll numbers would skyrocket if he asked for or offered a sacrifice, not at this point, because it would just be seen as a political maneuver rather than a genuinely altruistic proposal. My husband said earlier today, “The problem is that this administration is incompetent at absolutely everything except politics, at which they are extraordinarily good,” and not only is he right, but I think most people are starting to agree—even those who resolutely support him know that they're better at politics than anything else; they just don't care. So with the thought that it would likely be regarded as a wholly empty gesture, I doubt it would garner much enthusiasm.