Saturday, May 13, 2006

They're asking the question in Spain, too

The question being, how low can our Dear Leader go in the opinion polls?  George W. Bush se derrumba en caída libre de José Manuel Calvo El País 14.05.06

¿Se puede caer más bajo? Siempre es posible, pero no es fácil que George W. Bush tenga menos del 29% de respaldo que esta semana le da el sondeo de The Wall Street Journal. ¿O el presidente menguante no tiene límites? A menos de seis meses de las legislativas, Bush está en caída libre y casi todo lo que toca se convierte en plomo. No es extraño que parte de los republicanos que buscan la reelección le consideren un apestado político, ni que los demócratas quieran convertir las elecciones del 7 de noviembre en un referéndum sobre el presidente.

[Can he fall any lower?  It's always possible, but it's not easy for George W. Bush to have less than the 29% support that the Wall Street Journal poll gave him this week.  Or does the shrinking President have no limits?  Less than six months into the legislative period, Bush is in free fall and almost everything he touches turns to lead.  It's not unusual that a portion of the Republicans seeking reelection consider him a plague-infected politician, nor that the Democrats want to convert the elections of November 7 into a referendum on the President.]

In cataloguing Bush's various problems, Calvo refers to the latest revelations about illegal NSA data-mining of information on American citizens as the discovery that the NSA has its own "white and yellow pages", as in phone book.  And he notes that of recent Presidents, only Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter made it to this depth of unpopularity.

And speaking of catching political diseases from Bush, Calvo also reminds us that Bush's good friend and Iraq War supporter, the pititful Tony Blair, has also seen his popularity ebb away.   Bush's reverse Midas touch has tainted him, as well.

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