Bush's Approval Ratings Based on Iraq Success

Robert Tracinski at Real Clear Politics argues that President Bush's approval ratings have declined precisely because Americans understand that we are going to win in Iraq and the War on Terror, so that Americans can now worry about things like gas prices and illegal immigration.

Iraq is going just badly enough that it can seem like an issue that Bush should be blamed for "mishandling." But it is going just well enough that the American people don't seem to be afraid that we are actually going to lose, either in Iraq or in the War on Terrorism as a whole.

Of course, it's Congress who typically misreads public sentiment and could decide to cut and run at any time, just as they did in Vietnam.