Reply #23: And note the angle of attack that is heating up

[DrBB]

Your last paragraph--

Around 43% reelect W would lose an election narrowly- his personal approval ratings (honest, nice, well-meaning are all descriptions over 60% agree with) are presently too high to not get the best possible slice (about a third) of Undecideds- against a Democratic challenger with a solid Democratic base of 38%. Around 40% he would lose a big bloc of electoral votes. At 38% or below it's electoral college landslide time.

--gets to the heart. These are the people Rove is relying on. Not deep thinkers, they want things to be okay so they can go on watching TV and drinking beer. The Homer Simpson vote, if you like. "W's a guy like me. I don't understand all this other stuff, but I understand that." //belches, pulls GOP lever.

That's where the real damage can be done--landslide damage--if the BushLies meme can get big enough in time. He's not a guy like you; he's the guy who lied to you, and people are dying in Iraq (a big mess) and losing jobs over here.

I note that now a third book is being added to the "right-wing lies" meme. David Corn's "The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception," due out this month, along with a website: http://www.bushlies.com/

The increasingly unavoidable fact that Iraq is a debacle gives BushLies meme increasing traction. They have so many huge lies hanging out there that Iraq is threatening to undermine their credibility in a dam-breaking way.

Even more encouraging: Rove knows this. Hence the big "truth telling" exercise last week about 9/11. Hence the groundwork laid to leave Cheney hanging in the wind. They are positioning themselves--only if they have to--to jettison the "hard liners." Bush reported this week to be "reexamining the hardline" stance on Iraq, and preparing to go to the UN. What a concession! See what a reasonable guy he is! And guess what? according to today's NYTimes, he's going to adopt exactly the same beligerent, hectoring, arrogant
stance that got us into Iraq without international legitimacy: Bush to defend Iraq war at UN

In other words, it's all a pose (surprise!) but a highly revealing one, as it says so much about where Rove thinks his vulnerabilities are.