Though Bush's approval rating has hovered in the 20's for about a year now, I don't take it as a sign that the public that voted him in twice has gotten any smarter. In fact I can remember every excuse made for George Bush, Jr. over these last eight years...

Why did Bush go to the Supreme Court to stop a recount in the 2000 election? If he thinks, as a Republican, that the states should run their own business, why did he involve the federal government in the state election process of Florida?

He won and that's all there is to it! You need to move on!

Why are we going to war with Iraq when all but two of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia?

That's a bunch of lies by the liberal media! There was a terrorist that got a cast put on his leg in Baghdad, don't you know? And the Democraps have voted for the war, too!

But two U.N. inspectors, one German (Hans Blix) and one American (Scott Ritter), searched Iraq with 1,000 subordinates and said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They even volunteered to search a second time, but Bush said no. So why are we going into Iraq?

I'd love to see the look on your face when they pull those weapons of mass destruction out of the ground! What will you say then?

It looks like there are no weapons of mass destruction and never were. These people want us out of their country. Shouldn't we leave?

Only bleeding heart liberals care about weapons of mass destruction. The Iraqis are just afraid Saddam Hussein will return to power! They love us! After we kill his two sons and drag them through the streets you'll see!

We've drug them through the streets now, and they still want us gone.

To bail out now would be irresponsible! We need to stay until they have their first "free" elections.

Okay, they've had their elections. Are we going now?

Hell, no! We still haven't brought Saddam to trial!

Now Saddam has been brought to trial and was hung by his enemies...who are anti-American Muslims who would like to hang Bush, too. So are we all through there yet?

The Middle East is a powder keg region. We need this base to fight the terrorists on their own turf!

This war costs $11 million an hour. Bill Clinton left us with a budget surplus, now we have a $3,000,000,000,000 deficit.

I don't mind going into debt if it means I won't get blown up, do you?

A lot of this $3,000,000,000,000 has gone for no-compete bids to Haliburton, a company Dick Cheney was the CEO of before he became Vice President.

So what's your point? That don't mean anything. If there's only one company in the world qualified to do the work, why would you take bids from unqualified people? And Dick Cheney's already rich and doesn't work there anymore. How dare you impugn the dignity of this honorable, already wealthy man?

...More reflections on the past eight years of peace and prosperity to come Wednesday.