Bush can do what he likes - his unpopularity can hardly get any worse

The Washington Post reports that George Bush's unpopularity rating stands at 65%. Since polling began, Presidents have only twice been more unpopular. Truman hit 67% during the Korean war and Nixon hit 66% four days before his resignation.

This plumbing of the heights of unpopularity has caused a very strange attitude in the White House:

Bush has been so down for so long that some advisers maintain it no longer bothers them much. It can even, they say, be liberating. Seeking the best interpretation for the president's predicament, they argue that Bush can do what he thinks is right without regard to political cost, pointing to decisions to send more U.S. troops to Iraq and to commute the sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.

In other words, it can't get any worse for Bush, so he just does what he wants, with no regard for what the American people think.

Democracy in action!