Democratic ball-lacking aside, I can finally spread some good news: There seems to be a real shift in the perception of George W. Bush among the populace. A report from the Pew Research Center linked in several places on Salon shows that, among other things, "48% [of those surveyed] use a negative word to describe Bush compared with just 28% who use a positive term, and 10% who use neutral language."
It gets better:
Until now, the most frequently offered word to describe the president was "honest," but this comes up far less often today than in the past. Other positive traits such as "integrity" are also cited less, and virtually no respondent used superlatives such as "excellent" or "great" terms that came up fairly often in previous surveys.
The single word most frequently associated with George W. Bush today is "incompetent,"and close behind are two other increasingly mentioned descriptors: "idiot" and "liar." All three are mentioned far more often today than a year ago.
This brings me great joy, though it is of course tinged with sadness and not a little anger. Where were these people in 2004? He was just as much a lying, incompetent idiot when we elected him then. Does it really take the loss of thousands of lives (Katrina + Iraq) to shake people out of their "oh, but I'd rather drink a beer with him" stupor?
Let's hope we can sustain the momentum we have going to make some real changes come November. It would be helpful if the opposition party--indeed, my party--decided to put up a real fight now and again.