Bush Approvals on the rebound

[AuH2O]

A major thing that's kind of happened under the radar is that Katrina was actually not nearly so bad-- at least in human terms-- as was originally thought. The two "winners" that I see from that emerging reality are 1) the people of New Orleans and 2) the politicians directly involved.

Bush, however, was assigned less blame by the public, according to polls, than Nagin or Blanco. So the damage was somewhat limited, and what was done is receding. The news out of Iraq has gotten slightly less bad. The Roberts confirmation was a massive victory, handed to him on a platter by the 22 Democrats voting 'no.'

If oil prices can be brought down some and stabilized, by early next year Bush could be in decent shape. His ratings will never be sky high again, nor is that unusual (as the pertinent election becomes more remote, approval tends to decline).