Crisis, Pessimism + a little grain of salt...

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Those crazy indecisive voters have sure traveled a long way since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, from the rabid euphoria of war to landing unceremoniously in the same place those of us who initially opposed the war (and the prophetic experts to whom we listened) began:

President Bush's address to the nation last week outlining a "new way forward" in Iraq failed to move public opinion in support of his plan to increase U.S. troop levels and left Americans more pessimistic about the likely outcome of the war.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, more than 6 of 10 back the idea of a non-binding congressional resolution expressing opposition to Bush's plan to commit an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq.

...note, of course, that any 'movement' in this poll this week is within the margin of error, so we can't definitively say whether Bush's latest Iraq speech caused more harm than good to his effort to mislead us again, but that's not really the point.

Rather, the point is that this president has truly (mis)guided us into such a state of pessimism -- and for such an prolonged period of time -- that a majority among us now believe that this country is actually in a state of crisis:

There is widespread agreement among Americans surveyed that the nation is in a state of crisis. Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to say the nation is currently facing a crisis – 86% of Democrats feel this way, and though less so, a majority of Republicans (56%) agreed. While 82% of progressives and 80% of moderates said a crisis now looms in America, 57% of conservatives said the nation faces a crisis.

More than half (59%) of respondents said they believe the nation is off on the wrong track – that figure jumps to 83% for liberal respondents. Conservatives were more likely to say the nation is headed in the right direction – 44% have a positive view of where the nation is headed, compared to just 30% of overall respondents.

As with any poll, take it all with a grain of salt...but you really don't have to be crazy to believe that this country is in a state of accelerated decline under George W Bush.

--In fact, you'd be crazy to deny it.