Pollkatz (part of the Dr. Limerick family of fun anti-Bush blogs) tracks the Gallup approval rating of six presidents, including Shrub. One result is not so astounding - Shrub spiked after 9/11 and has been on a sharp linear downward trend since. Nothing that steep since Nixon. The other one was a surprise give press corps spin about Vile Bill Clinton vs. the 'universally loved' Ronald Reagan - after year 1, Clinton's approval rating tracked nearly exactly with Reagan's until year 6, when Iran-Contra busted out and Reagan tanked. The Monica bit (broke in year 5) on the other hand did nothing; Clinton still tracked with Reagan.
One thing to take home: even after sharp drops, LBJ and Dick Nixon cratered out. Tipsy's ratings have dropped more sharply for longer than anyone else's since these polls started without any sign of it cratering out. Mebbe Howie Kurtz should be sent a copy before he blathers on about how Cokespoon's ratings are 'stratospheric'.
Jeralyn Merritt of Talk Left is subbing today on Altercation this week while Eric Alterman is in Brussels. First post is about the gummint's anti-weed ads that will be shown during the Super Bowl. I won't go into the content of the spots, because she does a fine job with that. Instead, there's the obvious - the Bush drug office spent more than $4 million on the spots. That's at least 33% more than the entire budget of the 'independent' investigation into 9/11.
It's obvious that the Shrubbery considers 3000 dead Americans to be less important than getting crap drug ads on during the Super Bowl.
Some military muckety mucks see oil as an Iraqi terror weapon according to Oliver Willis. And one Cowboy Kahlil came up with this in the comments...
If Saddaam's using oil as a weapon, I propose that Bush should respond with vinegar, Blair toss in the lemon juice and the rest of the EU can add their spices. That's the only way to successfully render Caesar to the guy who would be Saladin.
After the election debacle for the Democratic Party in November, is was feeling pretty depressed. Daily Kos has something on how a particular bit of bad luck that day for Mary Landrieu has helped to send the GOP into an apparent graveyard spiral.
Wonder if the way she won in Louisiana will help the rest of the ninnies (koff Lieberman koffkoff) in the Democratic Party grow a spine. I don't hold out much hope for Gephardt or Daschle, though.
