The Unraveling of Bush and the Radical Right

I'm still on the road. I'm posting this two miles from the east gate of Camp Pendleton. Last night, I talked to a young Marine, a good kid who has been in Iraq once already and who expects he'll probably be sent back soon. He'll do his job. I wish him well, but I worry about him. He needs a president, civilians in the Pentagon and even officers who will do what generations of Americans have expected from our leadership. The complexity of Iraq is not something he has been trained for. He himself worries about some of his fellow Marines. I won't say anything further beyond that except to emphasize that with kids like the Marine I met, we may have a good future, but only if such kids receive the clear guidance they need.

The Republican Party is imploding after years of corruption and a misguided ideology taken farther than most Americans have realized until recently. For too long, the Republican leadership has put the party above all. But, for some time now, Americans have been catching on. Newsweek has the story, and the latest numbers:

Come hell or high water-ran the conventional wisdom-Republicans could rely on two issues to win elections: the war on terror and values. Then came Mark Foley. The drip-drip-drip of scandal surrounding the former Congressman from Florida, which became a deluge this week, now threatens to sink Republican hopes of keeping control of Congress, says the NEWSWEEK poll out today.

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...For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power. If the election were held today, 51 percent of likely voters would vote for the Democrat in their district versus 39 percent who would vote for the Republican...

(snip)

Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has fallen to a new all-time low for the Newsweek poll: 33 percent, down from an already anemic 36 percent in August. Only 25 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country....

We need to get our country back on track. There is much to do, more than most people realize yet. Let's hope at long last the natural wisdom of the American people rises to the surface. Both Democrats and Republicans have much work to do.