Bushcrash

Though largely unreported in American media, TV viewers witnessed the image of GW Bush on big monitors in St. Peters square evoking boos and whistles at the Pope's funeral. Bill Clinton, however, was cheered wherever he went, and had to cut short a walk because he was being mobbed by enthusiastic Italians.

But that's nothing to what's happening back in America. In their study of the major polls, the Democracy Corps ( Democratic consultants Stan Greenberg, James Carville and Robert Shrum) issued a dramatic report, showing Bush with 50% disapproval for the first time, and across the board numbers on his performance below 40% approval. Here's Karl Agne's opening paragraph:
"While media coverage has been saturated over the past few weeks with the tragic case of Terri Schiavo and the death and burial of Pope John Paul II, American politics has not stood still. Public polling released over the last two weeks show unmistakable movement on a number of fronts, and the news is almost uniformly bad for the White House and Republicans in Congress.

After a series of mixed results in mid-March, it is now clear that George W. Bush has reached
the lowest point of his presidency on fundamental measures including overall job approval,
personal favorability, and his handling of the two issues that have dominated his time in office – Iraq and the economy."

Perhaps most worrisome to the White House is the quick drop in the consumer comfort index, the sharpest plunge in a two week period ever recorded.

Meanwhile, the rabid right has been aggressively attacking the judiciary, with some issuing less than veiled threats of physical harm. And while Senator Rick Santorum, about to face a tough reeelection campaign in PA, was piously attending a prayer vigil for Terri Schaivo in Florida, he nevertheless managed to collect $250,000 there for his campaign.