Bush Reaches An "Inflection Point" in His Presidency

"Inflection Point" is a poker term (borrowed from the math world) referring to a moment in a hold 'em tournament where your chip stack gets low compared to the blinds and you need to do something quick before you are forced out of the game. Bush has reached that point in his presidency.

Prior to his incompetent response to Katrina, Bush was already the most unpopular president in a generation. His trip today to the zone of destruction is a critical moment for his administration -- either he'll leave the region with a few more chips in his stack, or his tournament life will be crippled beyond all hope.

And his trip to the region did not get off to a good start. I listened to his comments this morning after his plane landed, and what he had to say was fine. The problem was that, before he made his folksy little "we will rebuild" speech, he received an extensive on-camera briefing from various individuals regarding the situation on the ground.

What was that all about? Wasn't he briefed on the way in? People don't want to hear Bush being briefed -- everyone already knows how bad the situation is. They want to see him out there amongst the rubble comforting people, giving encouraging speeches, and showing leadership. Even CNN Commentator Daryn Kagan -- Rush Limbaugh's girlfriend -- was critical of that move. She commented that it was rather "odd" that he spent a big chunk of time getting that on-air briefing. She called it an unnecessary "political opportunity."

Clearly, this is not the cheer-leading corporate media that we learned to hate during the run-up to the Iraq Debacle. Comments like Kagan's are pretty common right now in the mainstream media -- at least on CNN and the network news programs (we don't get MSNBC through our cable company, and I can't bring myself to watch FauxNews very often). Yesterday, on Wolf Blitzer's new show, "The Situation Room," Jack Cafferty actually read an extended excerpt from the Op/Ed in Wednesday's Union Leader (New Hampshire's ultra-conservative newspaper) blasting Bush for his inept response to the Katrina Disaster.

Could it be that members of the Mainstream Media are finally realizing that Bush is an unpopular president? If so, then it is about time. But what I think is really happening here is that Bush's response to Katrina has been so unequivocally incompetent that our "news" people have no choice but to attack Bush. Any other approach to the story would appear disingenuous to the many viewers who are outraged by the Federal government's lackadaisical response to this catastrophic event.

UPDATE: Even the ultra ultra-conservative Washington Times is attacking Bush these days. I almost feel sorry for the guy.

I'm just kidding, of course.