Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

To recap: Iraq is in civil war (those these days the kids are calling it "sectarian violence"), Iran is thumbing their nose at the US and the UN (Why? See "Iraq"), our international allies have either left us or have their own political problems to deal with and North Korea is starting to feel ignored. And that's just foreign policy.

Over here: illegal spying, bad economic policies, ignoring laws that helped minorities and women, creating laws against gays, not fixing up the mess post-Hurricane Katrina, a crazy Medicare plan, the "sucess" of No Rich White Child Left Behind, and trying to destroy Social Security. Just to name a few.

Everything, except tax cuts, when along smoothly. And even that is taking heat because of the high gas prices and CEOs who get to retire with $40 million bonuses, like they just won the last five Superbowls. White House officals and congressional Republicans are retiring left and right, and it's not because they got tire of the perks (in many cases it's because of the perks).

So what's an embattered president with a 31% approval rating to do? Remember, it was only four months ago that Bush was giving his State of the Union Address, and he could do no wrong. That godawful phrase "political capital" started coming out of peoples lips again. Democrats and Progressives feared the worst: that Bush may actually push his agenda through, and become even more popular in the process.

It's not that we want to Iraq to fail, or our economy to end up in shambles. We just knew that all of these ideas, these REPUBLICAN IDEAS, were just plain bonkers. They were hypothetical and unrealistic, and once reality reared its ugly head...well, you know.

Part of it was, I believe, the freedom Republican felt they had with control of both houses of Congress and the White House. Like a kid who spends 18 years of their life with strict parents then gets sent to a party college, many Republicans didn't know how to handle themselves. They had no control, and that whole "checks and balances" thing was given a 5-year holiday.

But now, with people waking up and telling everyone how pissed they are with their government and their president, Bush has to make some hard choices:

1.  Stay the Course: his bread 'n butter tatic. Lame photos ops, cookie-cutter speeches, passing-the-buck explanations, and constant defense of political allies who are about one foot out of the door anyway. A perfect choice for the lazy and unimaginative. And it will almost garuantee him a 25% by the time his term is up.

2.  Major Shake-Up: As in "bring in people who weren't associated with you, your father, or Reagan." I'm sure his aides are getting panic attacks as I write this. They say it's never too late to change things, but other than giving up booze, has Bush ever done a major 180?

3.  War. Yep; war. Find a country that pisses him off, and bomb the hell out of it. Of course, it would help to make sure that country can't fight back, whether you're talking during or after the atcual fighting part. And, unless you truly believe that the Reputre is nigh, it might be wise not to pick a country who involvement may cretate a chain reaction leading up to World World III. What's that you say? "It's already happened?" Well, never mind then.

4.  Resign With Some Dignity. It took Nixon some persuading to step down, but it doesn't have to go this way for Bush. But considering the guy has always tried to live up to his father (and brother, to a degree), I don't see this happening, even if his rating hits single digits.

The only thing Bush has going for him is that the media is still (strangely) on his side. they're only reporting bad news that they just can't ignore (like his surreal confession about breaking around 750 laws).

Again, if he refuses to leave office, I won't be shocked; who wants to go out on such a low-note?