I guess we can call this "the Triumph of the Won't!"

Are we seeing, instead of the end of the Republican Party, the end of the Neocon movement?  Might we see a return to Eisenhoweresque Republicanism?

Poll Results:  I think the drop in the numbers after Bush's speech reflects the fact that people who are already against Bush were not going to change their minds based on the speech, while some fiscal conservatives have now moved over to the disapproval column (these are still probably not Democratic voters for Congressional elections, but they may be persuaded not to vote Republican either).

Bush's base:

1. Biggest part - Religious conservatives.   These people will not vote Democrat but may be persuaded not to vote Republican.   Issues to work on with them - U.S. killing of innocents with bombs and formation of Islamic state in Iraq.   They were lied to about Schiavo (she was unconscious and functionally brain dead).  

2. Next biggest part - People who equate patriotism with feeling good about themselves and their country, and look for political leaders that make them feel good and emphasize U.S. superiority and specialness.  Issues to work on:  Bush has embarrassed the country with response to Katrina, repeated lies,  torture of prisoners,   fiscal crisis of govt., failure to support troops via adequate gear in Iraq and VA funding, etc.

3. Next biggest part - People who want less taxes on high income and investment class.   Bush has been kind of good for this group, but Dems can emphasize that part of it is a shell game, because bills have been passed to future generations and to local state and property taxes and medical insurance costs.

Back off, Sailor! My wet Gulf is not your "Opportunity Zone"
http://caveshadows.typepad.com/parrotcage/2005/09/my_gulf_is_not_.html

I would assume that only a few people were involved from these states.  Of course this is second hand.  So I don't know for certain but given other information such as the firefighters it seems plausible.  Of course they also aren't going to publicize this.  It takes this passing from family members on down for it to come out.  Which of course makes it heresay.  Nice little game they have goin'.

This same family friend tells a story of Jeb Bush trying to privatize health care in the prison system.  This friend is a dentist in the prison system and said Jeb Bush was going to have a test of his theory that private health care would be cheaper for the state.  The test was conducted in southern Florida prisons and was failing miserably  to meet expectations.  So they moved all the truly sick prisoners into the northern prison system.  It apparently leaked at some point but I don't recall it really getting much attention.  The dentist was complaining because of the sharp rise in his workload.  

These guys aren't simply into photo ops, they will falsify anything to justify their theories.

Why did he have to set up an elaborate Hollywood set in New Orleans when he could have just rolled some cameras into the Oval Office, the way presidents used to do it.

Seems like a lot of taxpayers' money is being spent on the political rehabilitation project.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/19/bush.poll/index.html

Job Approval:
40% (was 46% 9/8 - 9/11)
58% Disapprove

Provides support for the SUSA data that the speech HURT Bush.

Even worse are the numbers are Iraq:

"support for his management of the war in Iraq has dropped to 32 percent, with 67 percent telling pollsters they disapproved of how Bush is prosecuting the conflict.

The survey had a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Fifty-nine percent said they considered the 2003 invasion of Iraq a mistake, 63 percent said they wanted to see some or all U.S. troops withdrawn from that country and 54 percent told pollsters they favor cutting spending on the war to pay for disaster relief.

Just 35 percent of those polled approved of Bush's handling of the economy, with 63 percent saying they disapproved."