The Bush "Boost"

Is there anything on earth harder to kill than a fake pro-Bush press narrative?

The "Bush resurgence" storyline from last week is as sturdy as an anthrax spore. If you didn't know better, you'd almost think Bush was popular. Or competent, at least.

After American troops killed the reviled Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Bush flew to Baghdad, gazed longingly into the eyes of another man, and then flew home five hours later. Also, Karl Rove managed to escape indictment for revealing the name of an undercover CIA operative to the news media. Pretty good week, by Bush standards.

Once he was back on American soil, safe and sound, Bush was feeling good. He strutted. He held a press conference. He made fun of a blind man. Yee haw!

Press and pundits sighed audibly with relief that the president's long, dark night of the soul was finally over. Long dormant flowers bloomed once more. Angels sang. Eagles soared over mountains high. The heart of the American public, deceived for so long by the liberal strumpet media, returned finally to its one, true love: George W. Bush.

Riding the wave of triumph, Bush's approval numbers surged from the artificial, unnatural depths at which they have lain for so long. From a wretched low of 36 percent, Bush exploded to an anstounding... 37 percent.

Yes, the president's approval rating surged one full percentage point in the wake of Zarqawi's getting his due and Karl Rove avoiding his.

Yet, to hear mainstream news outlets tell the tale, you'd think we had returned to the halcyon days of post-9/11 2001.

Bush's popularity has steadily fallen as the war has dragged on. However, the recent killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, and the formation of an Iraqi unity government, boosted the administration.

Boosted? Really?

As I pointed out earlier, the Bush "surge," all one point of it, was at the bottom end of a 3.1 percent margin of error for the poll in question. That means Bush could actually have been two points down, rather than one point up. There is no meaningful sense in which this constitutes a "boost" for the administration.

Yet, always the suckers for good spin, mainstream reporters see the strut and assume there is something behind it more substantial than sheer attitude.

People used to wonder why Bush strutted the way he did. The answer is simple. Because it works.