Dubya's decline (and what Democrats can do about it)

Well, the poll numbers are finally responding to the miserable presidency of George Dubya Bush. A new CBS poll -- reported here -- puts his approval rating at an all-time low, 34 percent.

On Katrina, Iraq, terrorism, the NSA scandal, and Portgate, the numbers are bleak -- at least from Bush's perspective. For the rest of us, it's just a matter of popularity, or lack thereof, mirroring reality.

Democrats need to hit hard on all these points, but, to me, this stands out: "In a separate poll, two out of three Americans said they do not think President Bush has responded adequately to the needs of Katrina victims. Only 32 percent approve of the way President Bush is responding to those needs, a drop of 12 points from last September's poll, taken just two weeks after the storm made landfall."

Get it?

It's Katrina, stupid!

Iraq is over there, somewhere. Americans are dying, but America seems largely disinterested and detached from what's actually happening on the ground. And terrorism is an often vague and nebulous threat. Besides, when it comes down to it, Americans have shown an inclination, an irrational one, to trust their president. I'm not saying that Democrats shouldn't address these and related issues, like Iran and North Korea, but voters respond most instinctively to threats or perceived threats to their own well-being, not to distant threats. This is why Portgate has some lasting resonance. Justifiably, Americans sense that something is amiss when their government allows a foreign state, one with connections to terrorism, to control their major ports. So, too, the NSA scandal. Justifiably, Americans sense that something is amiss when their government eavesdrops on them without a warrant.

And this is why Katrina, the government's response to Katrina, is an issue that Democrats need to tap. Americans -- and many of us who paid attention during those dismal days along the Gulf Coast -- watched as floodwaters tore through the levies and devastated one of America's great cities. They watched as rain and wind blew apart the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts. They watched as desperate men, women, and children, fellow Americans, sat atop buildings pleading to be rescued, as thousands upon thousands found refuge in the stink and horror of the Superdome, as bodies floated down flooded streets, as an entire city was evacuated, refugees placed on buses for faraway locations.

Like 9/11, Katrina was above all a human story. It seems rather blasphemous to call on Democrats to take advantage of such a human story, to use it to their advantage, but such is the reality of politics. Republicans took advantage of 9/11 at a time when Americans were looking to be united, not divided, and have shamelessly used terrorism as a wedge issue to punish Democrats ever since. We all know how Karl Rove plays the game and we all know how successful he's been.

And is it the Democrats' fault that Bush botched Katrina? Sure, there's much blame to go around -- from Bush to Chertoff to Brownie to Blanco to Nagin -- but, more and more, the focus has been on what the federal government didn't do, its failures to anticipate and respond to Katrina. It's been easy enough to attach much of the blame to Brownie, but is it fair for Brownie to take the fall for his bosses' failures, too?

The American people can relate to Katrina, to the (televised and blogged) suffering of their fellow citizens, and they seem to be holding Bush accountable.

And so should Democrats.

(See also The Left Coaster, Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, Taylor Marsh, and MyDD.)