Bush Still Wants To Surge, But What's Truly In Escalation Is America's Revulsion With The Very Idea

Jonathan Singer at MyDD analyzes information from USA Today about the U.S. public's reaction to the president's planned Iraq War "surge" (or as Condi Rice calls it, augmentation, just like breast implants): it's not very promising for Boy King George but when has that ever made him stop pursuing a very bad idea:

Americans have had the chance to digest the plan put forward by President Bush to escalate the Iraq War and, unsurprisingly, they are rather unimpressed. Susan Page has some of the details for USA Today.

President Bush's address to the nation last week failed to move public opinion in support of his plan to increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq and left Americans more pessimistic about the likely outcome of the war.

Among the key findings of the poll, which come to a fairly similar conclusion to the surveys conducted last week -- namely that the President's speech failed to woo support for his plans for Iraq -- are:

* 47% said it is "certain" or "likely" the U.S. will "win" in Iraq, vs. 50% who said that before Bush's speech.
* 49% said it is "unlikely" the U.S. will win or "certain" it will not, vs. 46% who said that before Bush's speech. [...]
* Bush's overall "approval rating" stood at 34%, vs. 37% before the speech.
* The percentage who said they disapprove of Bush's performance as president was 63%, vs. 59% before the speech.

There is little to say about these numbers aside from that they are truly abysmal. They represent a level of distrust in this particular administration unseen in decades and perhaps even ever in American history. And I'm not entirely certain what, if anything, can be done to turn that around in the next two years to reverse this situation.