The president now finds that only 49.7 percent of voters (according to the Battleground poll) approve of the way he is handling his job. No one can pinpoint with certainty why. We do know that since April 2003, the left has been in full cry, baying that "he lied" about the WMDs and went to war to enrich his Halliburton pals. They also accuse the administration of playing up terror fears for political purposes. (How they can also argue that Bush is responsible for ignoring terror warnings before 9-11 will be left to logicians to puzzle out.)
But by failing to keep the connection with the public, Bush left himself vulnerable to the left's attacks. In the coming days and weeks, the president will have to reconnect -- and he will have to do so about himself and his actions, not just about his opponent. He needs to revisit the WMD issue and make the case that it is better to err by assuming the worst than by wishing for the best. He will have to remind voters that everyone -- Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Kofi Annan, Jacques Chirac -- believed Saddam had WMDs.
Saddam certainly behaved as if he had them. So to accuse Bush of bad faith on the matter is itself a sign of bad faith. Most of all, he must frame the choice as fundamentally a question of offense versus defense. Kerry has promised to "respond vigorously" to any attack upon the United States. Bush's philosophy is not to wait for attacks to come, but to take the fight to the enemy.