Bush Can't Make the Sale

President Bush is having no success in getting the American public to support him on Iraq.

White House aides have pulled out all the stops in what may be the last and most important sales job of the Bush presidency. They've assembled friendly audiences in rebuttal-free zones all across the country so that the self-styled " Educator-in-Chief" can "help our fellow citizens understand why I've made some of the decisions I've made" and remind them of this salient fact: "I'm an optimistic person."

Much of the media coverage -- particularly on TV -- dutifully relates his constantly repeated assertions and predictions as if they were new and credible. Still, it doesn't work.

His optimism is falling flat because it's untethered from reality. The public is rejecting his message because it doesn't believe him or what he's selling. In fact, according to the latest polls, an overwhelming majority of Americans have lost faith in both the war and the president's ability to lead it.

And He's a Lousy Salesman

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Steven Thomma writes for McClatchy Newspapers: "President Bush now has what he asked for -- time to sell the people and the Congress on the Iraq war.

"But an extra 60 days from Congress, the addition of the talented Ed Gillespie to run the White House communications strategy, and a newly ramped-up sales pitch cannot change the underlying fact: George Bush is a poor salesman.

"He's never really sold the country or Congress something it didn't already want. And when he's tried to sell something the people or the politicians didn't want, he's fallen flat."

Thomma cites immigration and Social Security as examples of Bush's failures. "Bush has had successes, but they probably falsely inflated his sense of his sales skills. In reality, they were relatively easy sales," Thomma writes.

"[N]ow his credibility is shot, thanks to his success at misleading the country into war. His political capital is exhausted. His dismally low approval rating has many Republicans more scared of standing with Bush than of standing against him. And he still lacks the oratorical skill of a Ronald Reagan or John F. Kennedy to rally the nation to any cause it doesn't already embrace.

"Thus he's waging a defensive campaign just to hold onto what support he has."

Poll Watch

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Jon Cohen and Dan Balz write in The Washington Post: "Most Americans see President Bush as intransigent on Iraq and prefer that the Democratic-controlled Congress make decisions about a possible withdrawal of U.S. forces, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. . . .

"[B]y a large margin, Americans trust Democrats rather than the president to find a solution to a conflict that remains enormously unpopular. . . .