We get what we deserve

So President Bush’s popularity and job-approval ratings are at an all-time low, according to a CBS News survey conducted last week. Is it any wonder? Even those who have supported him through his dishonest invasion of the Iraq, his administration’s push to torture war prisoners, the ongoing incarceration of thousands of uncharged captives in Gitmo and Bagram, the slow and indifferent response to the people of the Gulf Coast in their most desperate hour and the revelation of his domestic spying program are jumping ship.

The surprising deal to allow an Arab country to manage six key U.S. ports is probably the last straw for many of these die-hard Bush supporters. They have come to see, as the liberals have known all along, that the president is an utter nincompoop.

And now we have three more years with this guy. Look for Bush to try to prop up his failing numbers by replacing key cabinet members and accepting the resignation of the vice president in coming months as a desperate attempt to help Republican members of congress face mid-term elections.

Now that the people in the Red States are catching on, it may be difficult for those in the Blue States to not gloat a bit and say we told you so. But they should refrain—liberal or conservative, we all sustain the same damage from the incompetence and cronyism that defines this administration.

And for the first time his personal popularity (29 percent) is even lower than his job-approval rating (34 percent). America’s patience with W has run drier than a Texas gully in late summer. Maybe a three-year vacation in Crawford is in order.