Dr. Potomac's Memo

Dr. Potomac would like to connect two important dots today. Dot number 1 is the new Time/CNN/USA Today poll showing, miraculously, that President Bush has actually begun to put some daylight between himself and JFK. When considered in the context of a year of active Bush-bashing by Democrat presidential aspirants this is startling enough. Dot number 2, the 9/11 Commission Hearings, is what makes these results truly astounding.

The Time/CNN/USA Today poll was conducted following Richard Clarke's testimony to the Commission, and the accompanying breathless media frenzy, claiming that President Bush and his staff had paid insufficient attention to the terrorist problem in the early months of the Bush presidency. The Bush team probably expected a dip and Dr. Potomac certainly did yet, inexplicably, Bush continues to rise. (By the way, the rule of thumb is that any incumbent over 50 percent is in excellent shape for re-election.)

What lesson can we draw from this state of affairs? The Democrats are wasting their breath on the Richard Clarke story. In fact, they are making a frontal assault on the redoubt of Bush's strongest political characteristic, his leadership in the war on terrorism. This is akin to Republicans attempting to make the public believe that Bill Clinton was a phony. Now, Dr. Potomac happens to believe Bill Clinton was a phony and that he needed to be exposed but he also learned the perils of going up against deeply settled public opinion. The peril of this way of thinking is that those engaged in the fruitless quest tend to double down on their bets. The public, the argument goes inside the hot-house, can't be that stupid. They will eventually see this guy for the charlatan that we, in the humid climes of our political environment, know he is already. When this hoped for "Damascus road" experience doesn't occur to the electorate, the prosecuting party gets, dare we say it, haughty. "The voters are so dumb," they say, "they deserve what they get." Yes, to coin a phrase, been there, done that. It is a wrenching experience to come up against the hard fact that, as much as we want something to be, it just ain't so. The Democrats, God bless them, are in the process of learning this lesson the hard and costly way.