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I believe it's because his approval ratings re Iraq fluctuated quite a lot. When there's good news, opinion polls go up (eg capture of important folks) and this happened before the election.
It's only since the election really that Iraq has fully started to disintegrate. He was still able to spin Iraq as being a success at the time of the election - it was a big job, but a job for a strong President determined to see it through. It appeals to the electorate.
It's easy to look back in hindsight, but back then most people didn't realise how impossible the task would be and were therefore easily swayed. Incidentally, Iraq is now ranked something like the fourth least viable state at the moment.
Besides, as happened in the UK as well, the election wasn't really decided on Iraq. The Pres was able to appear strong, consolidated his core supporters underneath him and as the economy was doing moderately well at the time people were quite content to let him continue.
Again, it's only really after the election has the Republican dissent become overt and events like Katriona happened to drag his ratings down more. Things just weren't this bad for him at the time of the election.
[ 05-04-2006, 08:04 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]
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