The old 80/20 rule

Shrub's approval rating has sunk to 29%, so can the reverse of the 80/20 rule be far off now, a 20% approval rating?

Even at 29%, it means he is even losing part of the faithful bedrock: fiscal small government conservatives (what we used to call "Republicans") and the nutcase Christian right (what we used to call "the nutcase Christian right") who combined with five Supreme Court justices and Katherine Harris to put him in the White House in the first place.

The Mandarin was magically reading Karl Rove's mind last night during one of the commercial breaks on the "Colbert Report," and -- you're reading it here first -- he learned what Karl is cooking up for 2008. The plan now is in three steps. First, Dick Cheney will resign this year for health reasons and devote himself to the cause of homeless victims of hunting accidents. Second, Shrub will nominate his brother Jeb as Vice President. Third, (and shhh.... Shrub doesn't know this part yet) Shrub will be persuaded to resign ("abdicate"?) in Jeb's favor, thus setting up the battle of the titans in 2008: incumbent President Bush III vs. challenger Clinton II.

Actually, the Mandarin isn't sure what Rove was smoking at the time, but the odds of that happening are about, what... 20/80?


Original photo caption: US President George W. Bush, pictured here late on 11 May 2006 steping off Air Force One under stormy skies, according to a recent poll, only 29 percent of Americans now believe he is doing a good job.(AFP/File/Paul Richards)