Does the Bush family deserve a uniform standard? Whatever happened to "it's the economy, stupid!" ???

Even if we agree that Iraq is a giant blunder, what ever happened to "it's the economy, stupid?" We have GDP growth which is still in the 2s, not too shabby after 17 interest rate hikes. We have 4.4% unemployment and no, that figure doesn't exclude people whose benefits have run out. Inflation remains beaten. Even oil and other commodity prices, which were up mostly because of rising Asian demand but partly because of the weak dollar, have come back down.

Bush '41 had remarkable success in Iraq but we tossed him out on his ear because of a temporary blip in the middle of what has been basically a 25-year bull run for the US economy.

I know the two are related - when Bush leaves office, $1TN of the debt will arguably be attributable to Iraq. So far the impact to the economy appears to be all of 25 bps on the long bond. Out of 300MM people you can always find someone who is suffering but the national economy is in fine shape.

Is it or isn't it "the economy, stupid?"

Well unfortunately in this day of push polls, exit polls and the like, the media tells , in their own view, what the people care about. And unfortunately many politicians have their finger in the air to see what way the wind is blowing.
And right now people seem to care more about the Iraq situation than the economy.
I am not one of those people but thats what the media polls claim.

Well, obviously it's NOT the economy, stupid. It's not always the economy, you know. It's whatever it most troubling at the moment when the question is asked and the vote is cast. Right now, even though there's a pretty decent economy which the President could claim credit for only in that he failed to screw it up, people are more worried about the quagmire in Asia Minor. The quagmire that millions of people said was a terrible idea back in 2003 (I was one of those people, even if my elected representatives were not), but which our President nonetheless launched into wholeheartedly. Why? Because he has sh1t between his ears, that's why. He is unquestionably the least intelligent person ever to hold that office.

It's because he's stupid, stupid.