Where Has The Cowboy Gone?

Earlier this week CBS News released some abysmally low approval poll numbers for President Bush. Many, including myself, pointed out the fact that this poll was so heavily weighted with Democrats as to render the results meaningless. Another poll is out today, however, and while the numbers aren’t as awful as those in the CBS poll, they’re still pretty bad. I think some on the right tend to get distracted from just how poorly Bush is polling with Americans by the constant onslaught of falsely negative (and some times even totally combative) reporting from the media and the slew of heavily distorted polls being trumpeted by the same.
But all concerns over media bias and polling practices aside, there is no denying that Bush is having problems. That he needs to address these problems is certain. That he isn’t doing more to address them is baffling.
There is little doubt that many of Bush’s problems stem from the fact that he has not followed through on some of the campaign promises he made to his conservative base. Tax and social security reforms seem to be on permanent delay and the President has refused to use his veto to stem any of the exorbitant spending passed by Congress of late (and has even proposed some of it himself). But in addition to that I think many conservatives have been frustrated with what seems to be a general listlessness within the Bush administration.