Surge in Troops, Dip in Polls: Time for a Sit Down

President Bush is playing the role of an unemployed teenager on a Friday night: time to ask for money. Now it is true, not many teenagers have to ask Congress for a loan (Bush actually might have) and generally don't ask for 20,000 troops to go along with it, but the emotional paradigm is essentially the same. Teenagers in this position,who must lobby the controller of the purse strings, are having a conversation they would rather not have in hopes of securing funds they feel a birthright to for a purpose that they feel is the difference between life and death. This is where the comparison becomes odious, as many do, in that the resources allotted for the Iraq war are the difference between life and death for many brave soldiers and Iraqis. However I feel President Bush would rather not address anyone on the war his administration must feel is "self explanatory." If he didn't feel that way he would've done so before the clamoring about his approval ratings and legacy reached a deafening tone, and certainly before the situation in Iraq became so desperate that immediate context was needed. The White House has been careful and quiet throughout the midterm transition crowning Nancy Pelosi as the chief thorn in the bloated overextended conservative ass. She and Harry Reid have sent Bush a letter responding to his proposal to increase troops in Iraq to advance security. Inasmuch as the surge would only lessen the ratio of "soldiers to thugs" from 200 to 1 to 100 to 1 the letter could've been titled "No, but seriously." As a proponent of democracy I'll be listening to the President. I only hope it's just not too little too late.