More on the spin from Ignatius

I pointed out the most recent White House spin from David Ignatius below. I did so without much comment but Matthew Yglesias had plenty to say.

David Ignatius says that in retrospect we should have done more to cheat on Iyad Allawi's behalf in the January 2005 elections.

[....]

Back when Allawi first took office in 2004, the Ignatius' of the world hailed this is a brilliant solution. They were wrong. Back when Allawi was booted from power in January 2005 in favor of Ibrahim Jafari, folks proclaimed this a great success and said Bush's Iraq policy had been vindicated. They were wrong. Back when Jafari was ousted in favor of Maliki, people proclaimed this, too, as a crucial step in the right directed. They were wrong. Now Maliki's the problem and Allawi -- again! -- is the solution. But they're still wrong, shuffling the personnel roster in Baghdad in this way isn't helping.

The point is of course is that Ignatius is just another pundit who has been wrong about everything Iraq but for some reason thinks we still should listen to him.

And about that Bush "recovery"

The Bush administration and it's sycophant talking heads on TV can't understand why the Bush administration isn't getting credit for the "great economy". Maybe this is why:
2005 Incomes, on Average, Still Below 2000 Peak

Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.

While incomes have been on the rise since 2002, the average income in 2005 was $55,238, still nearly 1 percent less than the $55,714 in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, analysis of new tax statistics show.

[......]

The growth in total incomes was concentrated among those making more than $1 million. The number of such taxpayers grew by more than 26 percent, to 303,817 in 2005, from 239,685 in 2000.

These individuals, who constitute less than a quarter of 1 percent of all taxpayers, reaped almost 47 percent of the total income gains in 2005, compared with 2000.

People with incomes of more than a million dollars also received 62 percent of the savings from the reduced tax rates on long-term capital gains and dividends that President Bush signed into law in 2003, according to a separate analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, a group that points out policies that it says favor the rich.

Or maybe it's this:
U.S. Foreclosures Rise Sharply in July

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Foreclosure filings rose 9 percent from June to July and surged 93 percent over the same period last year, with Nevada, Georgia and Michigan accounting for the highest foreclosure rates nationwide, a research firm said Tuesday.

The filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. The figures are the latest measure of the ailing housing market, which has seen defaults and foreclosures soar as financially strapped borrowers have failed to make payments or find buyers.

In all, 179,599 foreclosure filings were reported during July, up from 92,845 in the year-ago month, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc.

A total of 164,644 foreclosure filings were reported in June.

The national foreclosure rate in July was one filing for every 693 households, the firm said.

It all just goes to show how out of touch the administration and the DC pundits are. The people they talk to, millionaires, have never had it so good. Not so for the vast majority of Americans.

Irrelevance

How do you know when a member of the DC punditry class has become irrelevant? You head over to memeorandum and see how many people have commented on his or hers latest offering. Judging from the comments on the latest brain fart from David Ignatius he qualifies as irrelevant. As of 2:45 PM PDT there are exactly 4 responses. Yes, I know it's Sunday and there is less activity but there are nearly 20 reactions to a Think Progress post on how no body would go on Fox News and defend Alberto Gonzales. If there is one thing that is worse for the DC punditry than being dressed down by the blogosphere it must be simply ignored.

Why we can't all just get along

Lance Manion does a really great job of explaining "why we can't just get along" and why we shouldn't even want to. Most of us already knew why so I guess he wrote it for David Broder and David Ignatius.

It's time to pull the plug

This is so moronic I wasn't even going to waste bandwidth discussing it.
Bush Regains His Footing
I was just going to chock this up to another example of how the DC punditry corps is just as brain dead as Terri Schiavo but Glenn Greenwald does such a great job of taking Broder down that it was just too good to pass up.

Beltway pundits have long been petrified of the reality that most Americans have turned against the President permanently and with deep conviction. Because the David Broders of the world propped up the Bush presidency for so long, they are deeply invested in finding a way to salvage it. They do this exactly the same way -- driven by the same motives and using the same methods -- that they refuse to accept the reality that the Iraq war which they cheered on and enabled is a profound failure, and are therefore intent on finding a way to salvage at least the apperance of success, if not the reality.

The DC punditry, including Broder, have spent six years building Bush up and when he goes down for good so will they. And yes, he has gone down for good.

The collapse of Bush's approval ratings is not some isolated or fleeting event that can be reversed with a few magic tricks from Karl Rove. Americans who once vigorously supported the President have simply abandoned him over time. Contrary to Broder's desire (masquerading as belief), the contempt with which Americans regard the Bush Presidency is not some recent, fleeting, reversible phenomenon. Instead, the Bush presidency has been steadily collapsing over the last two-and-a-half years:Simply put, as Americans have come to see what George Bush really is, they have inexorably turned against him. It is not some petty scandal or momentary intemperate outburst from the masses. The Bush presidency has collapsed because Americans, with emotional distance between themselves and 9/11, were emancipated from the fear-mongering which was the administration's sole weapon, and gradually realized the extreme corruption, dishonesty, and ineptitude which drives this presidency. And yet all along the way, the David Broders have repeatedly insisted that Bush was on the verge of some grand "comeback," as though eventually, the poor, confused Americans would come to their senses and realize what a decent and honorable man the President really is.

Sorry David, the Bush administration and you have dug a hole too deep to ever come back.

Yes, it's time to remove the feeding tube from Broder and the other DC pundits, they are obviously brain dead.

Update
Even Rick Moran on the right thinks this is nonsense.