Tipsheet

Every Little Thing He Does is Tragic

It may be a bit quixotic, but I think there are some good points in Bill Kristol's op-ed this weekend.  In fact, if you told me in 2002 that in 2008 ...

... The economy would be by all measurable standards great, with 5 years of steady growth and low unemployment

... There would be no second terrorist attack in the U.S., and

... Two new conservative Supreme Court Justices would have been sworn in

Well, I would have thought he was going to be extremely popular.  Come to think of it, if you look at things this way, that's a pretty good legacy.  Of course, this leads me to consider a few reasons that this is not the case.  So why is Bush so unpopular?

1.  It could be that it is war -- not the economy -- which trumps every other issue and determines a president's popularity.

2.  It could be that Bush's team has simply not done a good job of promoting their successes.

3. His other failures may simply outweigh these three truly great things he has done.

4.  Or it could be our modern media world (cable, blogs, talk radio), means that no president can make it through two terms without getting banged up...

Thoughts?