Since it's finally official, a year and a half after the fact, that Bush lied about Saddam's connection to bin Laden (which means Bush's main rationales for the war, the other being WMD, have withered away), you'd think Bush's popularity would be hurting, and we'd lower the Bush reelection alert. (BTW: Bush's other war rationale--Saddam's torture record--doesn't play too well either, given that White House lawyers concocted ways for the U.S. itself to skirt the Geneva Convention.)

Unfortunately, Bush has put a new lie in play--June 30 "Sovereignty"--that's successfully reframing the campaign debate in Bush's favor. New Pew polling data shows that the news in Iraq (UN approval of the interim June 30 government, etc.) has upped Bush's popularity vs. Kerry. Of course, Bush's latest lie, like the hokum about the Qaeda connection, will out, just as all the other lies have, but probably not in time for November. --JF