New York Times/CBS News Poll

Duncan Black makes fun of David Broder's hysterical op-ed.

It may seem perverse to suggest that, at the very moment the House of Representatives is repudiating his policy in Iraq, President Bush is poised for a political comeback. But don't be astonished if that is the case.

The New York Times/CBS News Poll shows Bush sinking like a rock with his own party.

Mr. Bush’s approval rating dropped 13 percentage points since last fall among Republicans, 65 percent of whom now say they approve of the way he is handling his job as president, compared with 78 percent last October.

Over all, Mr. Bush’s job approval remains at one of its lowest points, with 29 percent of all Americans saying they approve of the way he is doing his job, compared with 34 percent at the end of October. Sixty-one percent disapproved, compared with 58 percent in October, within the margin of sampling error.

Twenty-three percent of those polled approved of the way Mr. Bush is dealing with the situation in Iraq. Twenty-five percent approved of his handling of foreign policy.

What interested me about the poll is that universal health care is becoming more popular.

Americans showed a striking willingness in the poll to make tradeoffs for a better health care system, including paying as much as $500 more in taxes a year and forgoing future tax cuts. But the same divisions that doomed the last attempt at creating universal health insurance, under the Clinton administration, are still apparent. Americans remain divided, largely along party lines, over whether the government should require everyone to participate in a national health care plan, and over whether the government would do a better job than the private insurance industry in providing coverage.

What Democrats need to explain is that under Republicans health care has gotten more expensive. John Edwards' plan addresses the administrative expenses that eat up so much money. President Bush refused to allow the federal government to negotiate for cheaper prescription drugs. The same way Wal-Mart does. The White House intentionally lowballed the true cost of Medicare. I really have no patience to listen to conservatives whine about the cost of universal health care as they remained mum on the Medicare pork.