Bush Distracted From Politics By Politics

ABC’s political blog, The Note, notes a strange concurrence of opinion between Dick Morris and James Carville regarding the upcoming election:

when Dick Morris agrees with James Carville, well, there just might be something to their shared thesis.

Even though Dick’s verbiage is steeped in the Fox News polling data that Republicans normally quote as gospel, the White House can’t even let the mere possibility that what Dick says is true enter the CW bloodstream.

“Just when control of Congress hangs in the balance, President Bush is losing the popularity he so desperately needs to gain control of the Senate and keep power in the House … ” LINK >

“The last time a mid-term election resulted in a partisan rout, in 1994, the auger of Democratic disaster was a drop in Clinton’s job approval in the period immediately before the balloting.”

“Why is Bush in free fall?”

“* Support for an invasion of Iraq has dropped from 72 percent to 62 percent in the past 14 days. Bush and his folks are so distracted by their diplomatic dance with France and Russia that they have fallen down on the job of convincing the American people that an invasion is needed.”

“* Bush has been hit with a continuous six-month fall in his ratings on ‘managing the economy’ – from 64 percent approval on April 30 to 55 percent on July 2 48 percent on Oct. 22.”

“* By campaigning for Republican candidates around the nation, Bush seems to be undermining the case for a military emergency requiring immediate action against Iraq … ”

“To salvage his chances of victory, Bush needs to stop campaigning, stop futzing with the U.N. and start to re-create a national sense of urgency about Iraq and terror in general.”

Mr. Morris doesn’t reference the recent fabled Podesta-Lockhart Democratic memo, but his analysis tracks with theirs – that by campaigning around the country, Bush gives Democrats a chance to focus on the economy, and lowers himself down off of his war pedestal.

Ironically then, Morris says Bush is losing ground politically because he is spending time on politics rather than doing what he himself knows to be his most important task – and true calling – winning the war against terrorism, which at the moment is focused upon Iraq. THE key element in winning that war right now is convincing the American people that the war against terror leads right down Saddam Hussein Boulevard in Baghdad.

Do what’s right George and the political rewards will reap themselves.