Belated Dissenters

Oxblog sympathizes with the senator:

"Fact is, critics are going to jump on every little compromise McCain makes, insisting that it is definitive proof that he is not an independent, principled, straight-talking maverick, but instead, just another hack. Yet as long as McCain sticks to his principles and is upfront about his positions, this kind of criticism will just roll off his back.

"Fact is that McCain will also pay a price with the media for every one of his compromises. When you run for president, the media can no longer approach you as a foil for George Bush or the Republican Right. More and more, John McCain himself will be the issue."

Here we go again: Here we go again:Poll Finds Bush Job Rating at a New Low . Except it's not a new low, it's a new low compared to the last Washington Post survey. Despite two months of "new low" headlines, Bush has actually been stuck in the 36-40 range. An old low, you might say.

Andrew Sullivan digs into the numbers:

"What's stunning is not the approve/disapprove numbers, which are consistent with other polls, i.e. mid-to-upper 30s approve, mid-to-upper 50s disapprove. What's stunning is that almost half the sample -- 47 percent -- strongly disapproves. I came to the conclusion that Bush was an incompetent abetting something much more dangerous before the last election, hence my reluctant endorsement of the pathetic Kerry. But the broad middle of American opinion has taken longer to see what this administration is and what Republicanism has become. These are pretty stunning numbers given the relatively strong economy -- strong in part because it's been propped up by an unsustainable Keynesian stimulus.

"Historians will figure this out, but my own view is that Katrina did it. Katrina was the equivalent of Toto pulling back the curtain. Once Bush's passivity, indolence and arrogance were put on full display, once it was apparent that the government was not working, and that Bush was the reason, people figured out why the war in Iraq was such a shambles. And so the mystique required to sustain patriarchal authority was shattered. I think this is largely irreparable because it's about a basic assessment of a single man. What worries me is that we have almost three more years. If we face a confrontation or a crisis, this president will not be able to carry Americans with him. Our enemies will take comfort from this. Which is why re-electing him was such a terrible risk."

Is Hillary Clinton just bringing home the bacon, or playing the influence game?

"Since Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the Senate in 2000," says the New York Times , "Corning and its mainly Republican executives have become one of her largest sources of campaign contributions. And in that time, Mrs. Clinton has become one of the company's leading champions, delivering for it like no other Democratic lawmaker.

"In April 2003, a month after Corning's political action committee gave $10,000 to her re-election campaign, Mrs. Clinton announced legislation that would provide hundreds of millions in federal aid to reduce diesel pollution, using, among other things, technology pioneered by Corning. It was one of several Congressional initiatives Mrs. Clinton has pushed that benefit the company.

"And in April 2004, Mrs. Clinton began a push to persuade the Chinese government to relax tariffs on Corning fiber optics products, inviting the Chinese ambassador to her office and personally asking President Bush for help in the matter. One month after the beginning of that ultimately successful effort, Corning's chairman, James Houghton, held a fund-raiser at his home that collected tens of thousands of dollars for her re-election campaign."

If this screed by HuffPoster and Dem loyalist Hayes Jackson is any indication, Hillary Clinton faces problems in her own party: