The author is using a sophisticated propaganda technique: Feigned sacrifice

"Being a liberal, you probably subject yourself to frequent periods of self-doubt"

"It's certainly true that there is a left-wing fringe of Bush haters whose lurid conspiracy-mongering neatly parallels that of the Clinton haters. York cites various left-wing websites that compare Bush to Hitler and accuse him of murder. The trouble with this parallel is, first, that this sort of Bush-hating is entirely confined to the political fringe."

"Democrats have grown "so caught up in their own victimization that they behave in ways that are patently not in their self-interest, and that are almost guaranteed to perpetuate their suffering."

The rest is a neatly sanitized package of the tripe on democrats.com type websites the author claims to disavow. It's full of lies and misstatements carefully worded and shielded by the apparent offering up of the most fanatic anti-Bush haters:

"Yes those anti-Bush folks are crazy, these are the real reasons for hating Bush until you burst a blood vessel in your brain."

Such an approach can disguise and provide a certain amount of cover, sort of the way Bill Gates can run his empire with monopolistic practices, earn billions and then get off scot-free with a few hundred million given away to charity every few years.

Portraying Bush as a cheater who got into office illegally is a fraud. It was perfectly legal and the electoral college is the way we elect folks. If they want to call Bush's victory illegal or cheating then so is every other Presiedent in history subject to the same claims.

Portraying Bush as an idiot who knows nothing is also a fraud and then offering up that he did not know who Jonathan Pollard was as evidence is laughable. Some reporters may be more versed in Israeli history but for the mainstream - nobody else knows who the heck Pollard is either! This of course backfires when they assume the world is all sitting around talking about Israeli spies and is AGHAST that Bush wasn't up to speed. If anything it reveals that elitism he is trying so hard to suppress. Average Americans don't know diddly about Pollard and don't care. As a result Bush is closer to their non-elitist views and that is why he is so popular.

When the media portray a 49% approval rating as dismal performance, you know you are a damn popular president! I remember Clinton hovering with a 20% job approval rating for months.

Yes, they just don't get it. They keep trying all the old favorites:

Bush is richer than you and born privileged...HATE HIM!

Bush is liked, but you know the REAL truth...HATE HIM!

Bush stole the election....HATE HIM!

Bush is a 'dummy'....HATE HIM!

Bush has a doll made after him and is viewed as a HERO.....HATE HIM!

While I'll grant that the author clearly is using a more sophisticated propaganda technique - it is propaganda nevertheless and designed to appear to sacrifice some on the fringe while really feeding their irrational hatred with distortions and lies.

The left will eat this jealousy and hatred stuff up like candy. But for independents and moderates - it just doesn't wash and the benefits of Bush's actions as President are very apparent as are his foreign policy successes since 9-11.

Bush was thrust into the position of a terror-era President and rational Americans realize he is doing an admirable job. Not perfect - but admirable.

It is for this reason why he will be re-elected and why the left will still cling to old tactics that just don't wash in this era of more important concerns than trying to call someone like Bush a dummy and point out that he is rich.

SDAI-Tech1