Insuring Defeat

By vetoing Congress's SCHIP renewal bill 2 weeks ago, Bush seems to be making a real effort to increase or at least solidify his current 70-ish percent 'disapproval' rating with the citizenry. In Salon.com, Walter Shapiro opined that this 'battle' is only part of the entire healthcare 'war' that is raging in the country and that Bush and especially those Congressional Republicans choosing to stand by him on this issue will be in trouble as the 2008 election rolls around.

Also in Salon.com, news editor Joan Walsh, cited yet another 'no holds barred' right-wing attack campaign on a family who dared to speak publicly about the SCHIP issue. She states what is increasingly becoming obvious, that the O'Reilly's and Malkins of the world are, like their increasingly irrelevant standard bearer, becoming unimportant. And Ann Coulter? Right now she's probably taken about as seriously as Vince McMahon. Like so many 'Baby Face' Finsters, these folks seem unbeatable or scary until you realize that you can simply pick them up and put them back into their cribs.

To put this in larger context, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, was interviewed on WNYC's Leonard Lopate program on 10/16/07. He spoke about his latest book, The Conscience of a Liberal, that discusses the rise and fall of the New Deal, the War on Poverty and how the socio-political pendulum may be swinging back to the left. Listen to the interview here:



Bush & Co. don't seem to notice this and their actions are actually accelerating the pendulum.