The center is traditionally the place filled for folks that either are uninformed and don't have an opinion or mask their true opinion and agenda - why on earth should I pledge allegiance to such a wasteland of ignorance and subterfuge?

Coins don't land on their sides alot Robert.

Why should I disavow the political philosophy that has made such major gains for good in the world?

All Presidents come with downsides. Bush is too religious for my tastes, has done next to nothing to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico, has limitations on his ability to communicate without falling prey to an evangelical zeal, failed to convince America to privatize Social Security, left North Korea to its own devices with only a heightened intelligence program and other political/personal downsides.

Abu Ghraib lies in Rumsfeld's lap and he took his lumps.

Corporate scandals are corporate scandals.

Dirty & corrupt politicians in the House exist in both parties.

Halliburton is a useful company. But it is in the business of making profit and some folks lament that fact.

Dick Cheney is not a very good hunter.

Katrina was the result of poor local & state government preparation and response combined with the typical Federal bureaucratic response. Government employees tend to be lazy and pass the buck - that's just the way it is.

The CBS poll is a farce and a typically misleading partisan attack on Bush posing as a mirror of the people.

Nothing has changed. I hate to burst yours and Don's bubble but most American didn't give a darn when folks were blowing eachother up in the middle east before Bush came along. Most folks still don't care that much because they know of the intense fanatical hatred and near universal ignorance of the peoples living in these Middle Eastern nations. If they are literate, they have read the violent headlines coming out of this region for as long as they have been alive.

Bush didn't invent anti-Americanism, Pan-Arabism or terrorism. None of his actions have changed these folks beliefs or philosophy. His actions have given birth to two quasi-Democracies. Naturally, when dealing with folks of limited education and experience with such, their democracies will not look like our democracies - but it is a start down the right path.

Show me when last Iraqis or Afghanis actually voted for their leaders? Never in their history. Why do you think the women and men risked assault and bombings to proudly hold up their finger. For the first time in history these folks have been given a voice and a sense of participating in their own leadership instead of being conquered or ruled.

You can make light of it all you want. But then you make it clear that your paty's agenda is simply power for personal gain - policy changes you want.

That's fine too. Everyone wants to better their own circumstances.

Everyone.

Bush is nothing near the monster or idiot he is portrayed as here. He is the byproduct of circumstance and enviroment.

His boldness comes from having been in a family with political power. Ted Kennedy's boldness has the same familial origins. FDR sat at Woodrow Wilson's side and awaited his day to wield the power - and wield it he did. Bush's executive orders pale next to FDRs blackmailing the Supreme Court justices with forced retirement so as to pass unconstitutional legislation. The same unconstitutional legislation, Social Security, that is now bankrupting the nation.

Bush will not go down as the greatest President but after the seeds planted in Iraq and Afghanistan bloom, spawned by those same giddy folks with ink on their fingers and telling the stories to their kids, he will be seen by future generations, as yet unborn, as a sort of Johnny Appleseed for democracy in the third world nations.

Believe it or not, history discs in these nations won't focus on Katrina or Cheney's hunting accident.

;-)