If you support Bush, the terrorists win
NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting “Death to Bush!” rallied Wednesday in New Delhi to protest a visit by President Bush.
Surindra Singh Yadav, a senior police officer in charge of crowd control, said as many as 100,000 people, most of them Muslim, had gathered in a fairground in central New Delhi ordinarily used for political rallies.
“Whether Hindu or Muslim, the people of India have gathered here to show our anger. We have only one message _ killer Bush go home,” one of the speakers, Hindu politician Raj Babbar, told the crowd.
Bush arrives in India later Wednesday for a three-day visit focused on strengthening the emerging strategic partnership between India and the United States.
This, from the world’s second most populous country … behind China, ahead of the distant third place US, fourth place Indonesia (mostly Muslim) and fifth place Pakistan (mostly Muslim).
And, contrary to the Bush spin, none of this is directed at democratic freedoms, suffrage, or the United States. The anger is directed at Bush.
And even here, 2 out of 3 of our own citizens are also angry or fed up with Bush. This can’t be attributed to liberals or extremists, unless you’d concede two thirds of the US citizenry is liberal.
The breakdown of the Republican consensus on national security both reflects and exacerbates Bush’s political weakness heading toward the midterm elections, according to party strategists. Even as Republicans abandoned him last year on domestic issues such as Social Security, Hurricane Katrina relief and Harriet Miers’s Supreme Court nomination, they had largely stuck by him on terrorism and other security issues.
Karl Rove, the president’s political guru and deputy chief of staff, has already signaled that he intends to use national security as the defining issue for the fall congressional campaigns, just as he did to great effect in 2002 and 2004. But with Bush’s numbers still falling, the Republicans who will be on the ballot have decided to define the security issue in their own way rather than defer to the president’s interpretation.
The release of a new CBS News poll showing Bush’s approval rating dropping to 34 percent, a low for him in that survey, sent tremors through Republican circles in Washington. Scott Reed, who managed Robert J. Dole’s presidential campaign in 1996, called the results “pretty shattering.” Most distressing to GOP strategists was that Bush’s support among Republicans fell from 83 percent to 72 percent.
An 11% drop among Republican voters. And since approximately 35% of US voters are Republicans, that means 25 points of the 34% supporting him are Republicans. Which leaves a mere 9 points that are the Democrats, Independents and others that support him.
Let’s consider that another way. Out of 100 voters, 25 are Republicans who still support Bush. 9 are Democrats and Independents who support Bush. 10 are Republicans who don’t support Bush. So more Republicans - in actual total numbers - dislike Bush than the total Dems and Indies who approve of him.
82% of Americans don’t support Cheney.
It’s not about liberals, extremists, Muslims or Arabs any more. The deposition watch has begun.
And since the number of terrorist attacks has grown under Bush, apparently they’re winning till Bush is gone.
