by Charles Coughlin

A recent poll has put Bush’s popularity at 34 percent. Opinion polls often take several days so it wasn’t clear at first whether the Dubai Ports controversy was included. Apparently it was. A CBS news article reports “The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high. Americans are also overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush-backed deal giving a Dubai-owned company operational control over six major U.S. ports. Seven in 10 Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, say they’re opposed to the agreement.”

While Bush got a 34 percent approval in the poll, Cheney got a stunningly low 18 percent. Shortly before the poll was taken, the “Dick Cheney shooting” was announced. Cheney shot his friend, Harry Whittington, at a perilously close range (about 18 feet in contrast to the 90 feet claimed) embedding a pellet in his heart, which later caused a mild heart attack. Cheney lied about the distance of the shooting. The ranch-owner lied about the amount of drinking and about 18 hours passed before Cheney made a report to police, causing many to speculate about whether Cheney was intoxicated. Some pundits suspect that Cheney may have planned to cover up the whole incident. The victim was flown to a private hospital further away than the nearest emergency facility. Apparently Dick Cheney told neither the media nor the president about this incident for the first 18 hours. For the first two days after the shooting was announced, various neocon pundits (with obviously no experience hunting) tried to blame the incident on the victim. This is the real character of Dick Cheney and the neocons. They only admitted it was Cheney’s fault when public reaction to their spin turned negative.

The Dick Cheney shooting did lead to some outstanding comedy by the Daily Show and David Letterman. In one comedy skit on the Daily Show, Rob Corddry insisted that Dick Cheney had acted on the best possible intelligence at the time he shot his friend, and if he had it to do all over, he would still shoot his friend in the face. “To do otherwise would have sent a message to the quail that America was weak.” NBC unfortunately was boring people to death with the Winter Olympics the week of the shooting so the Conan O’Brien show was off the air and the Jay Leno show was delayed from its usual time and many people didn’t even know Leno was on.

While Dick Cheney’s exploits didn’t help, Bush’s abysmal poll number resulted mainly from Bush’s position on illegal immigration and the Iraq War. Bush’s popularity was almost as low last fall (35 percent) after Hurricane Katrina. His popularity reportedly moved back into the 40s in December, but the Iraq War has been back in the news as that nation teeters on the brink of a civil war. The port deal with Dubai just highlights Bush’s bad judgment (much like his Guest Worker/Amnesty program) and this gives the average American the impression that Bush doesn’t have a clue. Of course, our border has been poorly guarded even after 911. Either Bush doesn’t get it or he just doesn’t care.