Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Howard Fineman: Sending More Troops into Baghdad Is Like Waving The White Flag For Bush
The discussion happening on Hardball right now between Chris Matthews, Chris Cillizza and Howard Fineman is extraordinary. Fineman, the Newsweek columnist, just said if you look at Bush's body language these last two days as he has been forced to admit that he has to send more troops into Baghdad because the violence is getting worse, not better, you can see a man who looks defeated. Cillizza, the Washington Post political reporter, concurred, saying that the administration has essentially admitted the mission is failing just a month after they declared everything was going great and some troops would be coming home soon. Both Fineman and Cillizza seemed to believe that the worsening conditions in Iraq are going to have profound effects on the midterm elections just 100 days away.
The overall theme of the Hardball discussion: things are getting worse in Iraq, things are getting worse in the Middle East, things are getting worse for the administration, things are getting worse for the Republican Party's chances in November. The subtext to the discussion is the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that is coming out at 6:30 PM tonight. Obviously Matthews, Cillizza and Fineman have seen the numbers and they are not good for the preznit or his party.
As a side note, American Research Group (ARG) released a poll today showing the preznit enjoying 35% approval and 59% disapproval. The ARG poll numbers come on the heels of the Gallup poll released yesterday showing Bush wih 37% approval and 59% disapproval.
Looks like all that talk about how the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict was going to help Republicans and hurt Democrats was wrong. It also looks like the administration's "Stand and Bleed" Iraq war policy, which most members of the Grand Old Party wholeheartedly embraced last month during the Congressional Iraq war debate, is going to come back to bite them. Rove and the RNC have their work cut out for them in the midterms. Luckily for Republicans, they always have Diebold to fall back on when all is said and done (as HowieinSeattle constantly reminds us.)
The overall theme of the Hardball discussion: things are getting worse in Iraq, things are getting worse in the Middle East, things are getting worse for the administration, things are getting worse for the Republican Party's chances in November. The subtext to the discussion is the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that is coming out at 6:30 PM tonight. Obviously Matthews, Cillizza and Fineman have seen the numbers and they are not good for the preznit or his party.
As a side note, American Research Group (ARG) released a poll today showing the preznit enjoying 35% approval and 59% disapproval. The ARG poll numbers come on the heels of the Gallup poll released yesterday showing Bush wih 37% approval and 59% disapproval.
Looks like all that talk about how the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict was going to help Republicans and hurt Democrats was wrong. It also looks like the administration's "Stand and Bleed" Iraq war policy, which most members of the Grand Old Party wholeheartedly embraced last month during the Congressional Iraq war debate, is going to come back to bite them. Rove and the RNC have their work cut out for them in the midterms. Luckily for Republicans, they always have Diebold to fall back on when all is said and done (as HowieinSeattle constantly reminds us.)
