The Perfect Storm

Whatever political capital Bush earned last November is gone forever, destroyed by his inept handling of Hurricane Katrina and his worsening shit-fest in Iraq. His administration may have been able to survive one of them, but the combination is the Perfect Storm of political crisis. Like the true Hollywood story, the beleaguered Bush ship could possibly sink forever.

According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, President Bush's overall job approval rating now stands at 42%, the lowest of his presidency. 57% of Americans disapprove of Bush's performance, a double-digit increase since January. Only 38% approve of his handling of Iraq. Just half approve of his handling of the war on terrorism. 63% say the Bush Administration does not have a clear plan for dealing with the "hurricane situation."

The only good news for Republicans that I can find is that 60% say Democrats critical of Bush for his handling of the hurricane are just trying to use the disaster for political advantage. A solid majority - 57% - say state and local officials should be blamed for Katrina-related problems. The Post, in a self-evidently biased statement, says this suggests "the White House has been at least partially successful in shifting fault away from Bush and the federal government." (In other words, a majority of Americans only believe that the governments closest to the problem are most at fault because of Republican spin. Yeah, right.)

extremely interesting (to me at least) is the fact that 39% of Americans say the best way to pay for the estimated $100 billion cleanup from Katrina is to cut spending elsewhere. Only 16% would raise taxes to pay for Katrina cleanup. Of those who want to cut federal spending, 20% want to cut it in Iraq.