Guest Post by Morbo
Like Godzilla rampaging through downtown Tokyo, [tag]President[/tag] [tag]George W. Bush[/tag] continues to destroy all in his political wake.
In another post today, I discuss how Bush’s unpopularity has spilled over on to his brother, Jeb, the governor of Florida. But there’s another politician Bush has helped ruin, one who, unlike Jeb, started out half decent but was quickly dragged down into the morass of the [tag]Iraq[/tag] [tag]War[/tag]: [tag]Tony Blair[/tag].
Blair’s [tag]approval[/tag] ratings in [tag]Great Britain[/tag] are now about as low as Bush’s. Brits are feeling Blair fatigue, and even members of his own Labour Party are starting to criticize him. The only question that remains is when Blair will leave. As Newsweek recently reported:
In a series of interviews this week, one of the British prime minister’s most loyal political allies, the former Home Minister Charles Clarke, offered a dire assessment of Blair’s premiership. Clarke said Blair’s government has lost leadership, authority and direction, and he expressed reservations about Blair’s ability to recover them.
To be sure, some of Blair’s wounds are self-inflicted. Newsweek noted that Labour has been hit hard by scandals dealing with “secret campaign loans to Blair’s Labour Party in alleged exchange for seats in the House of Lords, and damning stories about the release of foreign criminals from British prisons.”
But looming over it all is the shadow of the Iraq War.
The British have always been divided over the war, and lately opposition is increasing. A poll taken in April found 57 percent of Britons saying military action against Iraq was a mistake. Support for the war there dropped nearly 20 points in less than a year.
Unlike the compliant U.S. media, some elements of the more freewheeling British press have not hesitated to attack the war, and many BBC reports have been critical as well. (Like many Americans, I took to reading the BBC online after the invasion to get something more than rah-rah boosterism and lies. It was one of the few news outlets that, for example, reported on the deaths of Iraqi civilians during the initial bombing.)
Brits are not fond of Bush. Two-thirds say they disapprove of him. The sight of their prime minister constantly hobnobbing with Bush has probably not done much for Blair’s approval rating. As a result, Labour is looking to dump him and regroup with a new leader. The question is, is it too late? The [tag]Conservative Party[/tag], once down in the polls to sub-basement levels, is looking a little better to people again.
I remember when Blair took office after so many years of Thatcherism and “Thatcher lite” (John Major). I felt a real sense of hope and solidarity with the Brits. The U.S., after all, had been cursed with eight years of Reagan and “Reagan lite” (Bush I) and finally turned the corner. I’m no expert on British politics, but for a time it really looked as if [tag]Labour[/tag], led by a young and dynamic leader, was poised to enter a new era of dominance.
Leave it to [tag]Bush[/tag] to screw even that up.