Fingers in his...um..ears...

Whenever the NY Times starts charging for access to its columnists and editorial content, it might just be worth it to read stuff like this:

Someone Tell the President the War Is Over

LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?
…
The president's cable cadre is in disarray as well. At Fox News Bill O'Reilly is trashing Donald Rumsfeld for his incompetence, and Ann Coulter is chiding Mr. O'Reilly for being a defeatist. In an emblematic gesture akin to waving a white flag, Robert Novak walked off a CNN set and possibly out of a job rather than answer questions about his role in smearing the man who helped expose the administration's prewar inflation of Saddam W.M.D.'s. (On this sinking ship, it's hard to know which rat to root for.)

Rich’s point is that the war on terror global struggle against extremism is being lost in the hearts and minds of the American people. Only 34% of Americans approve of how the President is handling this war.

Which is exactly why the Republican solid front is beginning to crack. The 2006 elections are looming, and with 61% of Americans voicing opposition to the war, these Senators and Representatives are gonna have some ‘splainin to do.

And the Republicans CAN count:

These are the tea leaves that all Republicans, not just Chuck Hagel, are reading now. Newt Gingrich called the Hackett near-victory "a wake-up call." The resolutely pro-war New York Post editorial page begged Mr. Bush (to no avail) to "show some leadership" by showing up in Ohio to salute the fallen and their families. A Bush loyalist, Senator George Allen of Virginia, instructed the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother camping out in Crawford, as "a matter of courtesy and decency." Or, to translate his Washingtonese, as a matter of politics. Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7.

But none of this matters to the Clown Prince of Crawford. In the splendid isolation of the “ranch”, he can blissfully ignore any fact that doesn’t fit into his vision. Surrounded by sycophants (nee Cheney and Rice) he can pretend that none of this matters. He’s not running for re-election, so he need not care about public opinion.

It is the “Nyah-nyah I can’t hear you” school of governing.

Or something worse.