Little Trust in Bush’s Judgment

Although the present White House honchos bray on frequently about how prosecution of the ruinous Iraq war must remain the sole responsibility of “the commander in chief,” George W. Bush, that’s apparently not what Americans would prefer.

According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, “more than six in 10 [respondents] ... said Congress should have the final say on when to bring the troops home.” The Post notes in its report on this survey that “Since December, the percentage seeing Bush as too rigid [in his Iraq policies] has increased 12 points, with the most significant change among Republicans. Just after the 2006 midterm elections and the release of the 79-point plan from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, 55 percent of Republicans thought Bush was willing enough to change course in Iraq; in this poll, 55 percent of Republicans said he is not.” Just 31 percent of those Americans polled “give him positive marks on handling the situation in Iraq, which is near his career low on the issue. The last time a majority approved of the president’s handling of the war was in January 2004.”

Salon’s Alex Koppelman writes that there’s even “more bad news for the right in the Post/ABC News poll--bad news, at least, for those on the right who’ve been trying to argue that Congress is less popular than Bush--46 percent of those surveyed approved of the way Democrats in Congress are doing their job; just 34 percent approved of the way congressional Republicans are doing theirs. And there are strong signs that the disapproval of Democrats is actually coming from the left; 49 percent said Democrats have done too little to make Bush change his policy in Iraq.”

READ MORE: “Moving the Goal Posts, Again,” by Digby (Salon).