corrente

Atrios sends us over to this telling article about Tom DeLay by one of the more tiresome of the "conventional wisdom" pundits, Howard Fineman. The A man is right in that when Fineman starts writing your epitaph you're probably done but it was this paragraph that caught my eye:

There’s a certain logic to the enterprise: don’t take on the Texas president, who remains popular, especially as commander-in-chief. Take on another Texas, who comes from Houston, who is close to the Oil Boys, and who can be made to stand for the GOP’s never-ending vulnerability, which is that they are too close to corporate power, especially the kind that sells gas for $2.50 a gallon.

Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.

Since when did a president with an approval rating in the low to mid 40s become popular?

WTF is up with that?

Are you kidding me?

The low 40s is popular?

If Bill Clinton had ratings like that at this point in his presidency folks like Mr. Fineman would've been wondering aloud when congress was going to impeach him for unpopularity, a la Gray Davis.

And, within a few weeks, the punditocracy would've been demanding Clinton's impeachment.

Am I wrong?