cyrnel

I'm betting he has no chance of being re-elected.

Agreeing with Elphaba.

Does it really hurt the party if people vote less by party lines and more for (or against) leaders?

Are the things he's done, the things he's set in motion, good for his backers? Does it further their causes? Does it make them wealthier?

Are people better or worse for distancing themselves at this point and making him "take all the credit?"

Say you suddenly became a Republican representative. Any office, looking for a healthy future. How would you improve your position?

The dems got on board with GW soon after 9/11 because it was politically smart. They had to distance themselves at some point. This is little different.

Edit: What I hate most about this political whiplash is the effect it has on long-term policy and its execution. Foreign leaders might be prepared, but to the masses we look like the collective idiot. Oh, wait..

-Using pencil for my next protest sign.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195