Another Poll Finds Bush Sinking

Brad Hem writes in the Idaho Statesman about Bush's busy day, biking and fishing and dining with the Idaho congressional delegation.

How challenging was the biking? Strenuous, but apparently not over particularly perilous terrain: "There were four other cyclists keeping pace with the president, followed by five forest-green golf carts, each carrying three men in military fatigues down the trail," Hem writes.

Nobody in Bush's fishing party brought back any fish, he notes.

The Statesman has a photo gallery of the Bush visit that, among other things, documents the presence of Karl Rove. Can anyone tell what he has in his bag?

Josh Burek writes in the Christian Science Monitor: "What's the proper work-life balance for a president? Is there a disconnect between American workers' ever-longer hours and the precise but compact schedule of the nation's CEO?"

He notes that "this Sunday, Bush passed Ronald Reagan for most days spent away from the Oval Office.

" 'We're the hardest-working people in the world, and we have a president who seems to not only be working bankers' hours, but taking French bankers' vacation,' says Rick Shenkman, a presidential historian."

Hu Coming to Visit

Paul Eckert writes for Reuters: "President George W. Bush will host Chinese President Hu Jintao on September 7, a visit that caps months of rising trade friction as well as growing cooperation on stopping North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions. . . .

"The first U.S. visit by Hu, 62, since he became president in 2003 follows a stormy summer in bilateral trade ties as China and America wrangled over energy, textiles, Chinese counterfeiting and China's exchange rate policies."

There's also the Taiwan issue, and the whole matter of a growing U.S.-India alliance to counter China. It should be an interesting visit, at least behind closed doors.

Biking Redux

Cox News Service reporter Ken Herman spoke to Daryn Kagan on CNN yesterday about the bike ride he and a handful of other reporters took with the president two weekends ago.

Said Herman: "The president rides his bike like he runs his foreign policy. Once the course is charted, there's no turning back, no second-guessing, no waiting for the less committed. He gets out there and he gets his heart rate pumping and it's a serious activity."

Kagan asked: "Depending on one's political persuasion, people either think that the media is too tough or too easy on President Bush. What about -- is a line crossed as a White House correspondent when you're out there buddy-buddying and doing recreation with the president?"

Herman: "Sure. That's a good question. It is hard and probably foolhardy to turn down access to the president of the United States for almost any purpose. This was a legitimate story about a part of the president's life. I had ridden with him last year and written a story last year about his mountain bike riding and Senator Kerry's road bike riding and what that tells about people about them and the activities they choose.

"And I think most journalists would think any exposure you can get to the president, you're going to learn something about him or her and that's the name of the game, is learning about these people and what makes them tick."

Today's Calendar

Bush takes a 45-minute helicopter ride from the Tamarack Resort in Donnelly to Nampa, where he gives another speech on the war on terror today at 1:15 p.m. ET, at the Idaho Center Arena.

He then meets privately with families of service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then it's back to Crawford, via Boise and Waco.

Et Tu, O'Reilly?

Here's Bill O'Reilly last night on Fox News: "President Bush could go down in history as another Ronald Reagan -- or another Warren Harding. We'll know over the next few months. As you may know, the president's job approval rating is dropping into dangerous territory, the low 40's. If he falls much farther, his power to get things done falls as well. Three things are bedeviling Mr. Bush -- chaos in Iraq, chaos on the southern border, and high gas prices. The president either deals effectively with those issues or risks going down in history as a failure. And that is the no-spin truth."

Anyone Seen the White House Deed?

Wonkette alerts me to this item on eBay: The deed to the White House.

According to the Web site for a new book, "Night of the Realtors," by Vancouver novelist David Jenneson, Jenneson "discovered that the U.S. Government has no deed recording the property ownership for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- perhaps it never existed. . . .

"Armed with this surprising information, and a good amount of legal survey and analysis, the Canadian novelist found himself in a position to offer for sale the only deed in known existence. He has acquired a legal Quitclaim Deed/Covenant for the White House."

The Picture You Didn't See in the States

Lefty bloggers having a field day with this (genuine) Associated Press photo published on a Canadian newspaper Web site of a clearly disgruntled member of the audience during Bush's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Monday in Salt Lake City.

Late Night Humor

Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show":

"While his Iraq policy is coming under fire from his own party, President Bush was in a field of poppies, going on a two-hour bike ride with seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.

"He's bike riding, he's jogging five miles a day, lifting weights. Is he preparing for something we don't know about? Some kind of 'every man for himself' scenario comin' down the pike?"