The sad and somewhat unfortunate fact is that he is unlikely to know this or understand it from a political standpoint, because politically he will be more popular than ever. He will get tremendous press and the large majority of voters, tuned-out as always, will simply see this as something positive -- a good move on his part.
We conservatives are in reality a very small minority of the electorate, our disdain for this will be overwhelmed by the political positives (for Bush) from the massive, mushy, tuned-out, middle of the spectrum.
I wish others would do the same. I think a hundred thousand bumper stickers arriving in the mail at the White House might convince Bush and his advisors that he has now stepped over the line once too often, and he now is indistinguishable from the Liberals on everything except the War on Terrorism.
I find it encouraging that one of the shakers and movers in the Republican hierarchy in my city, activist to the max to get Bush elected, is receiving letters of outrage like mine from others, adding her own note of agreement, and is sending them on up the line to the White House.
Dubya needs to listen up -- with disaffection spreading in his base less than two years into his presidency, he could follow his dad into unemployment in 2004 even without a spoiler like Ross Perot to divide the vote. Just as "One swallow does not a summer make," 90 percent approval about foreign wars does not a president elect.