GOPers think Bush has his swagger back. Good grief.

Wow. Delusion abounds.

This "analysis" in today's Washington Post looks like it was spoon fed to Peter Baker by the White House press operation. You know the Bush team has been pushing this story for awhile -- finally, someone bit. Somehow, because White House staffers and GOP talking heads think things aren't so bad on some fronts (not that things are good, just not so bad), Bush now has his swagger back:

In many ways, the shifting political fortunes may owe as much to the absence of bad news as to any particular good news. No one lately has been indicted, botched a hurricane relief effort or shot someone in a hunting accident. Instead, pictures from Iraq show people returning to the streets as often as they show a new suicide bombing. And Bush has bolstered morale inside the West Wing and rallied his Republican base through a strategy of confrontation with the Democratic Congress, built on the expansive use of his veto pen.

Yet none of this has particularly impressed the public at large, which remains skeptical that anything meaningful has changed and still gives Bush record-low approval ratings. The disconnect highlights his dilemma heading into the last year of his administration: Can anything short of a profound event repair an unpopular president's public standing so late in his tenure? Can tactical victories in Washington salvage a wounded presidency?

The article gets the spin from notables like Karl Rove, who led Bush to the point of being one of the worst Presidents ever. Interestingly, after Baker quotes a slew of Republicans who think Bush is doing a GREAT job, he mentions this tidbit from his own paper's recent polling:

Bush's strategy contrasts with those of Clinton and Ronald Reagan, the last two-term presidents, who recovered from political troubles late in their tenures. Both found ways to work with an opposition Congress to pass important legislation. Reagan left office with a 64 percent approval rating and Clinton with a 65 percent rating.

Neither had sunk as low as Bush, whose numbers are the worst of any president in decades. Just 33 percent of Americans approved of his performance in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, a rating that matches his record low and has not changed in four months. Potentially ominous for Bush is the economy. Only 35 percent of Americans rated it as good this month, a seven-point drop since spring and the lowest in two years.

Bush may be popular with his White House staff -- and may still have the ability to contoct a story like this one in the Post -- but most Americans still think he's a disaster. And, unfortunately, we have 427 days left of the disaster. There's still a lot of damage he can do.