So, what do Americans think of Dear Leader these days?

It's a car wreck.

Dear Leader may have three years left in office - provided the Congress does not discover any stray blow jobs, which are the only impeachable offense recognized by God's Own Circus - but the country is not pleased at the prospect.

The newest poll out from CBS News - cue aggrieved spin about Dan Rather stage right - paints a picture much like a slow-motion train wreck. Bush now stands at 35% approval, 57% disapproval.

That's only eight points above Nixon - and twenty-two points below Bill Clinton at this point in his second term, thirty points less than Reagan, thirty-two points below LBJ, and twenty-three points below Eisenhower.

Now, polls are one thing, trends another. The interesting thing about this premature lame duck is this: these numbers are not the result of one single cause, or of a momentary loss of confidence. Rather, what we're seeing here is the effect of the slow and deadly drip, drip, drip of failures and of unpopular policies. It's half-forgotten now, but this administration claimed a mandate to destroy Social Security, and failed - because the same public opinion that is now congealing rejected that idea. The same underlying principle applies to the Iraq war, placing judicial activists on the court, raping the environment, and a number of other policies. Americans are deeply uneasy about the direction our country is taking.

Now, while Progressives - in other words, normal Americans - are gleeful about this, it's important to not get too excited. First of all, low numbers for Bush are pleasing, but they do not yet translate into effective change. However, unpopularity rubs off - and Bush, as exponent of every single bizarre extremist fantasy ever crafted, has the potential of being the walking tombstone of his radical movement. When you're only slightly more popular than Nixon after the Watergate scandal became known, you, and everyone you touch, are in deep trouble.