Tour de 2006

NBC/WSJ has Bush at all-time lows in every category:

• Overall: 38%
• Economy: 34%
• Foreign policy: 35%
• Terrorism: 39%
• Iraq: 32%

Oh, and speaking of Iraq:

Fifty-seven percent believe he deliberately misled people to make the case for war, compared with 35 percent who say he gave the most accurate information he had. In addition, 58 percent are less confident the war will come to a successful conclusion, and 57 percent say the United States should reduce the number of U.S. troops there.

This is the part where the trolls remind us that 60M people voted for Bush a year ago, and hahaha, the GOP controls everything.  I'll remind them that the political process is ongoing, and Bush unsurprisingly squandered whatever "political capital" he thought he earned last November.

He couldn't help the GOP gov candidate in VA this week.  The rats are abandoning the ship.  His Social Security agenda is dead, as is the plan to drill in ANWR.  None of this bodes well for 2006.

Yes, yes, lots can happen in a year.  But Bush, being a biker and all, should know that going downhill is wicked easy--climbing back up a steep incline is much, much harder, and takes a long, long time. 

To carry the analogy further, Reid and Dean are other bikers in the Tour, and not unlike Lance Armstrong, they've got a great team (e.g., Fitzgerald, reality) riding with them and running interference in the mountain stages.  Bush's biggest problem is that he doesn't know how to ride mountains.  His ranch is flat and easy, and his instinct is to never back down on anything--downshifting is anathema to him, so this ride is really beyond his abilities.  Anyway, there are lots more stages to go in this long race, but barring a major mishap it is the Dems' to lose.

ntodd