So what's ahead for the rest of us? A midterm election, it seems, in which each party will operate in a parallel universe: That is, the Democrats will try to nationalize the election as a referendum on the president; the Republicans will instead try to localize each race. "If it's a referendum on the president, we lose," one top House Republican tells me. "We have to make sure we run good local races, and then we'll survive. Which is all we can ask for."

edger - Who cares? Bush won. So maybe being smart doesn't carry much weight???

Forty-four percent (44%) of American adults approve of the way that President Bush is performing his job. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove. This is the fifth consecutive day that the President's Job Approval has been at 44% or above. That's a modest improvement from the baseline of the past six months. In January and much of February, the President's Job Approval ratings were in the mid-40s. Then, they fell sharply and have hovered around 40% ever since.

Bush's job approval rating held steady at 39%, in the poll conducted Sept. 7-10. His approval rating has averaged 39% over the last six Gallup polls, since early July.

Bush won. So maybe being smart doesn't carry much weight???

Being unable to refute the fact that Bush's approval as increased, Dark Avenger decides to claim that it has not.

Rasmussen said what Rasmussen said. Leave it, like it or lump it.

And I have all the faith in the world that the DNC will manage to f this up and blow it. When I hear an ounce of imagination from the Dems, then I'll believe any major electoral gains will be had. As of now, I've seen and heard nothing from them.

The latest Bush bounce is over. Today, 41% of American adults approve of the way that President Bush is performing his job and 57% disapprove. That's exactly where the numbers were before the President's 9/11 speech. Overall, 21% of Americans Strongly Approve and 42% Strongly Disapprove.

Help us, Lord! Is there anything George W. Bush has not yet discredited? Perhaps, in a perverse sort of way, he has succeeded in not discrediting his father. Indeed, the longer Bush '43 carries on his fanatical war, redoubling his efforts when he has forgotten his aim, and "grows" the national debt, the more credible Bush '41 looks by comparison. But the same kind of comparison makes Carter '39 look like a tower of competence and Dukakis "00" appears a prophet before his time. Do you remember what Michael Dukakis said when he stood before the delegates and the nation to accept the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1988? He said the election would not be about ideology, but about competence. He then proceeded to get buried by the most ideologically driven campaign in memory.... So today we have George the son (Spare us, O Lord, George the Holy Ghost) with deficits far exceeding those of his father.... We are the aggressors in the war we are in with no idea of how or when we're going to get out. That leaves us to wonder what claim the Republicans have left to any competence at all. It would be bad enough if this Republican president had merely devalued, as Nixon did, the currency. But he has a more all-encompassing reverse Midas touch. He devalues and discredits everything he touches. He has even devalued "values" as an issue for Republicans.