What was that number?

Hundreds of millions, possibly billions, in campaign donations.

 

Yeah, but remember what happened when they tried to impeach Clinton? His ratings went UP!

(AllPolitics, December 20, 1998) -- In the wake of the House of Representatives' approval of two articles of impeachment, Bill Clinton's approval rating has jumped 10 points to 73 percent, the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows.

That's not only an all-time high for Clinton, it also beats the highest approval rating President Ronald Reagan ever had.

At the same time, the number of Americans with an unfavorable view of the Republican Party has jumped 10 points; less than a third of the country now has a favorable view of the GOP.

Despite concerns that public calls for Clinton's resignation would rise after his impeachment, the number of Americans who want Clinton to resign has remained statistically unchanged. Only 30 percent want Clinton to resign; only 29 percent want the Senate to convict Clinton and remove him from office.

 

Actually, I think they'd go down.

I don't think there is much he can do to win over those who despise him.

And what he'd gain in moderate support for a pullout I have to guess he's lose immediately from the 28 percent of true believers who are still desperately supporting him.

Which is why he's pretty much fucked...

 

True enough.

But the four presidents thing is a touch misleading, too.

Put it the other way, you have to back six presidencies, to Richard Nixon days before he would resign, to find a president more unpopular than GWB is right now.

 

You also have to factor in the last 25 years have seen the advent of the 24-hour news cycle, talking heads, the blogosphere (BLOGS!), the increasing polarization between the left and right and "with us or against us" politics. Granted, the last one of those has been fostered mainly by this administration, but with the way the U.S. is now, this number isn't shocking to me.

Sure, the war has been terrible for this administration, but an opinion poll with 18 months left in the presidents term isn't going to define how history will treat him. We need a lot more time to assess that.

 

I'm not sure that his numbers go down, but you bring up an interesting point. It reminds me of divorce. If you stay, life sucks. If you leave, life sucks. From a political strategy perspective, I doubt that anyone would suggest to him that leaving is the thing to do. And, of course, part of the problem with our government is that politics plays too great a role on both sides of the aisle.

By the way, did anyone see that recent Colbert Report where a guy talked about what equates to educated guesses. He said experience is key and noted that Colin Powell was right about the war because he was basing his educated guess on experience. He also said that the problem with Bush was that he had all these hunches without really having the experience to arrive at them. It seemed to ring true, and it helps that it was a fairly bright fella who made this statement.

 

His approval rating in September 2001 was about 90 percent.

Obviously that was a little emotionally inflated, but it tells me that a large percentage of the country --- not to mention the world --- was more than willing to give him a chance.

 

A lot of people think the aliens are calling the shots. On the Bilderburghers or whatnot.

If, in fact, a lot of people think Cheney is calling the shots, how would that drive W's numbers down? If he's Forrest Gump, looks like people would tend to go easier on him. Not sure I'm buying that part.

 

Yeah, because that's the only time our federal government has failed to properly address Islamic extremism. :

 

You want the blue ink, I think.

With responses like that, it only makes it clear that you may be too busy counting trees to account for the forest.

 

Well, I did use the rolly eyes, which works the same way as the blue font ...

 

If you believe Bob Woodward, it's obvious someone besides Bush is calling the shots, since his ability to manage foreign policy is even worse than his ability to swallow pretzels while watching Monday Night Football.

And while the comparisons to Truman and Eisenhower may be legit, it's hard to judge the way history has treated Ike vs. how it will treat Bush. I mean, Eisenhower did lead the Allies and save the entire world, so history hasn't been totally based on his Presidency.