"We Can't Sink. We're on the Titanic!"

Matt Peiken dissects the latest polls that show Bush's soaring popularity. Snippets:

"The latest New York Times/CBS poll shows 67 percent of Americans approve of President Bush's job performance. Yet the same poll showed ambivalence with Bush on nearly every indicator of governmental leadership. Only half believe the Bush administration has at all improved the nation's economy, only 42 percent believe public schools have improved under Bush, just 35 percent believe Bush has ensured the existence of Social Security and Medicare for future generations, only 36 percent say he's helped create new jobs and just 19 percent believe Bush has helped reduce the cost of prescription drugs for the elderly. These polls only illustrate Americans are confused. How are people measuring their satisfaction? Can anyone among the supposed satisfied articulate and detail for us unsatisfied souls why they believe George W. Bush is doing his job at a satisfactory level or better? Can someone point out one significant area of national life that hasn't nose-dived since Bush took office? People aren't wealthier, happier, healthier, safer or more hopeful, and they don't care to address that. They're holding fast to the Titanic, keeping their eyes peeled for evil outside the gaping hole in the bow, impervious to the water rushing up to their collarbones. The day it was announced the nation's unemployment rate had ballooned to 6 percent, the president had the audacity to convert the grim news into ammunition to push his proposed tax cuts.

Are Americans' memories are so short or selective they can't remember how well his 2001 tax cut worked? The United States has lost 2 million jobs since Bush took office, affecting every employment sector and income level. The stock market continues to plummet, the national debt continues to climb and consumer confidence is at a decade low. This, in addition to the environmental protections Bush has stripped, eroded and erased, the public schools and universities choked under Bush's watch and the hike in health insurance coinciding with shrinking benefits. You'd think people would connect the dots between Bush's policies and the sadness around them."