United Press International: Analysis: Bush still trusts his Teflon By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst

[O]pinion polls continue to indicate a strikingly divided American body politic, with Democrats and liberals ferociously opposed to the president but Republicans and conservatives remaining extremely happy with his performance.

Therefore, while situations like the O’Neill interview, the continuing Plame probe and the Army War College report are certainly embarrassments for the president they remain fleeting ones. Bush continues to out-Teflon Ronald Reagan.

But it may not last forever. …

The president’s Teflon is still looking good. But it is a long way to November. And political Teflon has been known to peel.

Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage By ROBERT PEAR and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, NYTimes

Administration officials say they are planning an extensive election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples, and they are weighing whether President Bush should promote the plan next week in his State of the Union address.

For months, administration officials have worked with conservative groups on the proposal, which would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain “healthy marriages.” …

Without waiting for Congress to act, the administration has retained consultants to help state and local government agencies, community organizations and religious groups develop marriage-promotion programs.

I thought conservatives thought government had no business promoting social policies. I thought conservatives believe the government should stay out of people’s lives as much as possible. Somehow, conservatives will find another $1.5billion which will end up in the pockets of church groups. How conservative is this? mjh

Keeping Detentions Secret (NYTimes Editorial)

The Supreme Court made it easier this week for the government to drape a cloak of secrecy over the imprisonment of people accused of crimes when it rejected an appeal seeking the identity of hundreds of men rounded up after the Sept. 11 attacks. The freedom of all Americans is diminished. …

The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear this appeal comes as the Bush administration is increasingly asserting the right to conduct law enforcement in secret. …

”Those who would give up essential freedoms for security, deserve neither freedom nor security.” — Ben Franklin

TheStar.com – O’Neill backtracks on Bush broadside TIM HARPER

The book [The Price of Loyalty, by Ron Suskind] is replete with stories of a president who appeared zoned out at meetings and said he operated on ”instinct” and ”gut,” not briefing books.

In the book, O’Neill laments the fact that as a 65-year-old man he had to be given a nickname, a Bush habit.

The president immediately began calling him “Pablo.” Later he started calling his treasury secretary “Big O.”

He said Bush called Secretary of State Colin Powell “Balloonfoot.” …

[I]n an interview to be published in Rolling Stone magazine, Dean — without specifically mentioning the war in Iraq — said Bush had some type of obsessive need to please his father, who allowed Saddam to remain in power after the 1991 Gulf war and lost his bid for re-election.

“This president is not interested in being a good president,” the former Vermont governor said. “He’s interested in some complicated psychological situation that he has with his father.

“He is obsessed with being re-elected, and his obsession with re-election is hurting the country.”

In the 60 Minutes interview, O’Neill said Bush’s habit of giving nicknames was indicative of his bully-nature, while most suggest it’s because he’s not too bright; both are probably true.

Note that Suskind wrote for the Wall Street Journal, which is for conservatives what they think the New York Times is for liberals. Now the WSJ is trying to discredit Suskind as a “well-known Bush antagonist.” mjh

Kennedy: Bush Broke Faith with Americans on Iraq By Vicki Allen, Reuters

[Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts] said the administration ”has broken faith with the American people, aided and abetted by a congressional majority willing to pursue ideology at any price, even the price of distorting the truth.”

He also said the Iraq war has made the effort to stop terrorism more difficult. ”We knocked al Qaeda down in the war in Afghanistan, but we let it regroup by going to war in Iraq,” he said of Osama bin Laden’s network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. …

“War in Iraq was a war of choice, not a war of necessity. It was a product they were methodically rolling out,” he said.

Kennedy branded the administration as “breathtakingly arrogant,” convinced “they know what is in America’s interest, but they refuse to debate it honestly.”

Interactive Electoral Votes Map found via Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation., which was linked from Babes Against Bush!, which Jas. discovered.

Cool election day countdown clock from www.babesagainstbush.com:

And my own countdown calendar:
Dump Bush — 2004 Election Countdown

Clark: Bush more concerned with ‘political security’ than national security TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark on Tuesday criticized the timing of an investigation of former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and suggested President Bush was more concerned with ”political security” than national security.

Campaigning in New Hampshire two weeks before its primary election, Clark called for a full congressional investigation into why the United States went to war in Iraq.

“We don’t know what the motivation was. We just don’t know. We’ve spent $180 billion on it, we’ve lost 480 Americans, we’ve got 2,500 with life-changing injuries,” the retired general told reporters. …

Clark contrasted the speed of the O’Neill investigation with the slow pace of an inquiry into who last summer divulged the name of a CIA official whose husband had criticized the president’s Iraq policy.

“They didn’t wait 24 hours in initiating an investigation on Paul O’Neill,” Clark said. “They’re not concerned about national security. But they’re really concerned about political security. I think they’ve got their priorities upside down.“