Bush effectively pulls out a stunning whopper in his recent speech - that sectarian violence is down by half. Now, any person willing to call themselves a journalist should say somewhere in the article, if not in the very lead paragraph, that this statement is at complete odds with reality in virtually every way. And follow it up with either Bush shouldn't lie to the American people or that the President appears to have completely severed ties with reality.

But Deb Riechmann's AP headline repeats exactly what Bush says:

"Bush: Sectarian killings drop in Baghdad"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070420/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_36

Now, I know that the savvy reader is probably supposed to know that this may suggest that what Bush says is not really true because otherwise the headline might say just "Sectarian killings drop in Baghdad".

But most people listening to Bush/reading the paper aren't going to catch that - what, contrary to all available data, they'll see and remember is essentially that the President's surge appears to be working. And the President can mislead the people this way because he's very specifically and disingenuously limiting what he's saying to a) whatever the administration decides to define as sectarian violence and b) only what's happening in Baghdad. The big glaring problem with what the president is saying and the way AP is covering what he's saying is that overall, neither deaths and casualties of Iraqi civilians or of the brave men and women serving the United States there has gone down at all. Not at all.

The behavior of the president is shameless in its open attempt to manipulate and lie to the American people. And so is the behavior of his enablers in the press. How hard would it have been to actually give a little bit broader context and point out the way the President is using one very specific way of carving the data to suggest that there has been progress when Iraqis and Americans are continuing to die at precisely the same pace.

Bush has a way to go to reach Nixonian depths but the internals on the CBS poll that Josh highlighted today are truly awful for the President. Worse than even his November polls (which were pretty disastrous- see below).

The lowlights:

50% disapprove of Bush's handling of the war on terror

Overall job approval: 34% (heading to Nixon-town)

Handling of Iraq 61% disapprove, 30% approve

Handling of Energy policy: 60% disapprove, 27% approve

Response to Katrina: 64% disapprove, 32% approve

(More internals follow)

Does Bush care about people like you: 51% not at all/not much

Personal views of Bush: 29% approve, 53% !! disapprove

(Can we put to rest the media myth that he's well liked and people think he cares about regular people, please?)

Personal views of Cheney: 18% (whoa) approve, 46% disapprove

Unlike the saber-rattling administration and their right-wing pundit-o-rama, 74% of the American people think Iraq can either be contained through diplomacy or that they don't actually present a threat to the US

50% disapprove of the Bush admin wiretaps, 46% approve

Even if you specifically mention terrorism, approve only increases to 51%

In retrospect, perhaps many Americans have now realized that they completely misunderestimated the President, finding his particular pronunciation of the word terror an endearing affectation. Many have now concluded that it was not a mispronunciation after all but in fact Bush was declaring, and has prosecuted with tremendous success, not a war on terror but a war on terra.

The lowlights from last November for those interested:

4) 64% think the administration was either hiding important elements or downright lying in making the case for war