03/22/06

Bush’s approval rating dives to 37 percent. It’s the lowest point in his Presidency. I remember when he won the last election, he claimed that the American (51 percent of the voters) approved his past performance and he would use his political capital to carry on his agenda. Obviously, just 15 months from his second term, he has spent all of his capital.

Yesterday, during the press conference, he complained that his mid 30 percent rating was stemmed from the bad press. I guess blaming on the press is a traditional excuse of the politicians who terribly fail on their job. Clinton did the same thing when his hooking up with intern scandal almost kicked him out of his oval office.

There are a lot of people in Washington DC and media wondering why the good news on the economic issue does not help the President’s rating. His generous tax cut, he believes, is a boon to the economy.

Iraq is the main drag to the White House. We hear all the bad news from Iraq everyday. It seems to everyone even to the most loyal conservative that the situation in Iraq is getting worse not better like the Administration always claim and the American troops are likely to station there for a while at least until the Iraq government can take care of themselves. But when? People are asking. It’s been 3 years but the Iraqi army is still in the infant state. The insurgency is getting more violent. The American soldiers are dying everyday. The most important thing, more Americans are losing their patience.

The media is a mirror to reflect the Administration’s performance (of course, not Fox News). It is true that the media can persuade the public. But if the government does the good job, there will not be anything the media can criticize or report.

So I think the main problem is not the bad press but the White House itself. As we all know, Bush has such a talented PR team that was able to neatly create his image as a strong and honest leader during the last election. If Bush really does the good job, he would have sent those messages out to the public for a long time. But why not? Or they do not have any good news to proudly show to the public at all.

I do not think we can create objects out of thin air anyway.

Tae Athikomvittaya