Josh Marshall thinks that Bush's precipitous decline in popularity may be because of Kay's WMD disclosures.

I don't think most people following this story figured it would have nearly so dramatic an effect as the Annenberg study indicates. I certainly didn't. Indeed, I focused on the parts of Kay's comments and testimony which struck me as attempting to exonerate the administration.

As did I. Big time.

But this may be a case in which close attention to the news helped create a real blind spot. As we've noted here many times the White House has gone to great lengths to avoid publicly acknowledging the reality that we were totally wrong about the weapons.

The implication of this is that the American public is finally tiring of all of the head-fakes. I'd love it if it were true.

...according to Billmon, the Russert interview didn't help the perception of Bush as either a liar or, well, just an incompetent:

If, as the polls suggest, people (particularly the independents) are already having doubts about Bush's judgement calls -- especially on Iraq -- then I don't see how this kind of dialogue is going to help him:

RUSSERT: Let me turn to Iraq. And this is the whole idea of what you based your decision to go to war on.

BUSH: Sure, sure.

RUSSERT: The night you took the country to war, March 17th, you said this: Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.

BUSH: Right.

RUSSERT: That, apparently, is not the case.

BUSH: Correct.