The magic number is 22%

From AP via Yahoo:

The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the "Mission Accomplished" banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq.

Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush's dramatic landing in a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier homebound from the war. The USS Abraham Lincoln had launched thousands of airstrikes on Iraq.

So, let's look at the office pool. Which liberal blogger had 22%? Who had 22% as the approval rating it would take for the Bush Administration to admit that "Mission Accomplished" was a stupid and misleading thing to say? Ah, I see. That would be LatteDrinkingElitist.org.internets.thiswould be funnyifitwasnotsosad.com.net. Congratulations!

Oh, and NBC/Wall Street Journal has Bush polling BELOW the Rev. Jeramiah Wright. Ouch.

The world of water cooler politics is flat, too

President Bush recently visited Tanzania, one of the few nations in the world where he enjoys an approval rating above 50 percent. Despite Bush's relative popularity, questions about Sen. Barack Obama's campaign to become Bush's successor dominated the visit, according to a Sheryl Gay Stolberg story from last Sunday's New York Times.

Outside of town, at the Mwenge Village market, Theresa Maridadi, 62, was seated with a newspaper in her lap, debating the Democrats with her son, Lucas Kahtoza, who lit up at the mention of Mr. Obama’s name and put his hand to his chest.

“Remember, Obama is from Africa,” he said. “From my heart, it is good.”

His mother cut him off. “Why you want to like Obama because he come from Africa?” she demanded. She is for Mrs. Clinton: “Her husband was the president, she has more exposure. She’s mature, she’s a woman. It’s good for a woman to lead that country.”

It's nice to see that people on the other side of the world are having the same exact argument that I have with my mother in law all the time. Though, to be fair, if you ever hear me say "From my heart, it is good," I've probably been drinking. That's four-beer rhetoric.

The 935 reasons we're still in Iraq

Old news, but I've never seen the bogus run-up to the Iraq War quantified so specifically as in this AP report. I know Iraq policy is a touchy subject, but we're starting to see how badly the situation was handled at the start.

Study: Bush, other officials issued hundreds of false statements before Iraq invasion
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL , Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.

"The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.

Hey you, Dow Jones guy

I just watched President Bush's year-end press conference. I noticed that, with the exception of reporters who have specifically pissed him off in the past (David Gregory), he refers to the reporters by their organization's assigned seat. "OK, first up, Associated Press guy." My favorite was this exchange.

BUSH: Dow Jones guy. How's the market?

DOW JONES GUY: I don't know. I can check.

BUSH: OK.