The Break with Bush

Peggy Noonan describes -- I think correctly -- the American disillusionment with President George W. Bush:

In Lubbock, Texas – Lubbock Comma Texas, the heart of Texas conservatism – they dislike President Bush. He has lost them. I was there and saw it. Confusion has been followed by frustration has turned into resentment, and this is huge. Everyone knows the president's poll numbers are at historic lows, but if he is over in Lubbock, there is no place in this country that likes him. I made a speech and moved around and I was tough on him and no one – not one – defended or disagreed. I did the same in North Carolina recently, and again no defenders. I did the same in Fresno, Calif., and no defenders, not one.

He has left on-the-ground conservatives – the local right-winger, the town intellectual reading Burke and Kirk, the old Reagan committeewoman – feeling undefended, unrepresented and alone.

There will eventually be a renaissance, but clearly right now there is an opportunity for the Democratic Party. The question is whether they will be able to access it, or whether they will lurch so far left to make the Republicans palatable (or the lesser of two evils) to the majority of Americans again.