WE MAY NOT BE BAKING OUR PARENTS, BUT WE ARE ALL ON VACATION

DUBYA TROUBLE? (John Podhoretz, August 26, 2003, NY Post)

A PAGE-ONE Washington Post article summed up this week's conventional wisdom perfectly: "The president no longer enjoys the aura of invincibility that surrounded him only a few months ago . . . Democrats especially have re-evaluated his presidency and concluded that, on the issues now dominating the political debate, Bush does not have the upper hand."

Only one problem: The article by Dan Balz and Dana Milbank was published a year ago - on Aug. 11, 2002.

Its thesis was that President Bush's standing had faded after 9/11, that he was vulnerable, and that the White House was getting scared.

It's déjà vu all over again. [...]

The August madness of 2002 is not exactly the same as the current hysteria. Bush's polls are worse; 9/11 is almost two years in the past, and the post-war situation in Iraq is nervous-making and difficult.

But it's August. August means Bush and his staff have gone on vacation - they're working, and fund-raising, but they are not generally speaking playing offense.

They'll be back, with bells on, after Labor Day - as they were last year, when Bush went to New York on the anniversary of 9/11 and then, the very next day, confronted the United Nations with the necessity of challenging Iraq's defiance.

Meantime, let's get serious.

No line better exemplifies the degree to which this Administration uses big time business operations as a model for governance and the discipline with which they apply the insight than Andy Card's statement from last year: "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." Posted by Orrin Judd at August 26, 2003 6:00 PM