The Numbers Never Lie

Few are surprised by Pres. George Bush's nomination of Judge Samuel "Scalito"Alito to the Supreme Court. After either playing to the wrong portion of his "base" or making another of his crony picks with his Harriet Miers nomination (possibly both, depending upon your viewpoint), Pres. Bush proved that he still had folks reading the paper for him. Thus, George Will and Charles Krauthammer (not to mention Sen. Sam Browneye Brownback) should feel as though their work was not in vain.

However, trying to right a wrong for the right (clever, eh?) was not the sole motivation. Rather, Pres. Bush's 39 percent job approval is the reason Pres. Bush has decided to that his stores of political capital are difficult to locate. Neither Pres. Clinton nor Pres. Reagan (the last of the two-termers) ever fell below 40 percent approval, even at the height of their respective scandals. It could be worse for W, though -- Richard Nixon hit a low of 23 percent.