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VICTOR DAVIS HANSON NAILS IT AGAIN:

Our Orphaned Middle East Policy
Things are looking up as everyone starts jumping ship.

. . . But if we look beneath all these self-serving contradictions, real progress amid the carnage since September 11 is undeniable. It is not just that the United States has not been attacked again. Al Qaeda's leadership has been insidiously dismantled. Even bin Laden's communiqués are increasingly pathetic, whining about lost truce opportunities for the Crusaders while warning of more welcomed genocide in Darfur. We can be sure of his war-induced attenuated stature when some on the Left are already suggesting that the 9/11 attacks were mostly the operations of just a few criminals rather than precursors to international jihad.

Some European governments that were patently anti-American — Chirac's in France or Schroeder's in Germany — are either gone or going. The European public no longer thinks that the threat of Islamic fascism was mostly something concocted by George Bush after 9/11. American supporters in Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom were returned to power. Finally a parliament is meeting in Iraq. There have been open elections in two regions of the Arab Middle East. In one place, terrorists were voted in; in the other place — the much more criticized one — terrorists are being hunted down.

Hamas wanted power; the Americans didn't interfere, and they got elected. Now they can galvanize their people for their promised war against Israel (that they will lose), or they can find a way to evolve from thuggery to governance — it's their call. It is not the decision of the United States, which, after fifteen years, is finally freed from subsidizing West Bank terrorists masquerading as statesmen.

It is a fine thing for all to see the once swaggering gunmen now on television appealing for daily cash from suddenly stingy Middle East benefactors, as Hamas whines that Fatah is in Israel's hip pocket and decries militants who shoot without government authorization. Democracy, not more autocracy, exposed that absurdity.

Middle Easterners wish that we would be humbler, that we would let more Arabs into the United States, that we would not lecture them so, that we had not used force to remove Saddam, that we did not seem so self-righteous when promoting Western democracy, that we could express our intentions in a more sympathetic and articulate fashion. It is true that at critical junctures we did not explain ourselves well, and did not apprise the public candidly here and abroad about the range of poor options that confronted this nation after September 11.

But aside from these complaints, the people of the Middle East for the first time are watching on television a voting parliament in Iraq — and what sort of killers are trying to stop it. They know that oil skyrocketed and that the petroleum of Mesopotamia was not appropriated by the United States — and that huge windfall profits in the Middle East are still not likely to trickle down their way. They also accept that China in the Middle East cares only for petroleum, Russia only to cause others trouble, and Europe mostly to talk.

Those in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, as elsewhere in the Arab world, want closer, not more distant, relations with the United States. Ever so slowly the Arab Street is grasping that the more its own governments are angry at us for prodding them, the more it is a sign that we are on the right side of history.

You can read the entire article at
http://nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200604280625.asp

HEADS UP . . .

Prepare yourself for the enslaught of BOGUS "lowest ever" polling data that will emanate from EVERY corner of the Lamestream media this week in another orchestrated attempt both to diminish the Bush presidency and enhance Democrat electoral chances in November! [NEITHER of which will happen, but that of course will not stop them from trying!]

Even RASMUSSEN has moved to the 'dark side' (of polling). Like Gallup last year, he has decided to 'adjust' his weighting formula to advantage Democrats. This 'adjustment' will have the immediate effect of lowering the President's JA rating by at least 3 points from what it normally would have been. For example, today Rasmussen put the President's JA rating at 38% . . . Had he not 'adjusted' his weighting formula, the President's JA rating would have been 41% . . . UNBELIEVABLE!

TIME FOR A REPEAT OF MY POLLS/SCHMOLLS RANT:

During Reagan's presidency, ONE genuinely independent pollster provided reliable polling data on a wide range of issues, including the President's job approval rating. That one pollster was the Gallup Organization.

In the 1980s, Gallup WOULD and could produce a REPRESENTATIVE polling sample of 1,500 - 2,500 adults by eliciting a 'reliable' 60% response rate using standard telephone technology . . . NO MORE!

Rather than one INDEPENDENT, OBJECTIVE pollster, today we have almost 30 'media-owned' polling organizations (including Gallup) who regularly ‘manufacture’ skewed polling data by using dated telephone technology, push polling methodologies, and Democrat-dominated weighting formulas.

BOTTOM LINE: Pollsters have become nothing more than propaganda prostitutes for media organizations desperate to SHAPE rather than report public opinion . . .

Just ask yourself: WHY DO WE NEED SO MANY POLLSTERS?

Answer: WE don’t, but Democrats do!!!!

NBCNews/WallStreet Journal
ABCNews/WashingtonPost
CBSNews/NYTimes
FoxNews/Opinion Dynamics
USAToday/Gallup
LATimes/Bloomberg
AP/Ipsos Reid
IBD/Christian Science Monitor
CNN
Pew Poll
Harris Poll
Time
Newsweek
Quinnipiac
WNBC/Marist
Zogby
Rasmussen
Survey USA
ARG
NationalPublicRadio (NPR)
Cook/RTStrategies
Diageo/Hotline
Strategic Vision
Democracy Corps
The Battleground Poll
Mason Dixon
Annenberg

and many, many more . . . .

FORGET THE POLLS AND JUST REMEMBER:

PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH IS PERSONALLY POPULAR!. . . The new LATimes/Bloomberg poll (which oversamples Democrats by double digits) puts the President's 'PERSONAL APPROVAL' rating at 61% as compared to Clinton's highest 'Personal Approval' rating of 42% for this same poll!!

The recent Battleground Poll discovered the same 'Personal Approval' rating for the President and identified this rating as the greatest hope for Republicans moving forward to the 2006 election. [NOTE: According to the Battleground Poll, Clinton's 'Personal Approval' ratings never climbed
above 40%!]

Bottom line: The MAJORITY of people in this country LIKE President George W Bush and will listen to his message IF and when they actually 'hear' it. Unfortunately, the MSM (right and left) is working overtime to 'black out' and 'counter spin' the President, making it VERY difficult for him to communicate directly with the American people.

Despite these difficulties, George W Bush will continue as president for 2 1/2 more years; during which time, he will ignore the polls and do what's best for the long term security and prosperity of our country! May God continue to bless our great Dissident/DECIDER in Chief!

[REMEMBER: George W Bush has enjoyed high Job and Personal approval ratings throughout his political career first as governor of Texas (where he became the only TX governor ever elected to two consecutive terms) and then as president (where he holds the record for the highest JA rating ever recorded and the longest number of months with JA ratings above 70 and 80%). Most immortantly, President Bush became only the 14th president to stand for and earn re-election -- garnering more votes than any other presidential candidate in history.

At this stage in his presidency, the President is free to ignore job approval ratings (notoriously fickle and irrelevant to a president's legacy) and focus on doing the tough work necessary to guarantee the LONG TERM peace and prosperity of this nation!