A sure sign that George Bush is sagging badly in public approval ratings is that wife Laura profers one of her infrequent interviews, especially to CNN's soft-question maestro, Larry King. TV-friendly Laura is appearing again this evening on Larry King's talkfest.

Laura makes George look palatable. People tell themselves that if that wonderful Laura Bush likes George, well.....maybe he's not such a bad guy. Laura is the anti-Hillary with a soothing presence, a warm smile and no messy career ambitions to overshadow her husband.

Except that Laura Bush's cheery campaign-trail act is wearing thin these days. And her charity-of-the moment seems to change yearly. Today, it's womens' heart disease, which is ironic since her husband savaged funding for Medicare and Medicaid, which both help millions more women than men. In a State of the Union speech a few years back, Bush announced that Mrs. Bush would be battling the influence of gangs on children in schools....but then, the President eliminated that program, too. Early in the Bush, Jr, era, Laura hawked literacy as her signature issue.

The April 2006 issue of Vanity Fair has an insightful article about Laura Bush, entitled "Lost in the White House" by James Wolcott. In it, he muses that "the First Lady has wasted her moment of power---which may be one reason she's so harsh toward Hillary." I found the article to be both fascinating and a bit sad. In private, Laura Bush is an inveterate reader with superb literary tastes, an accomplished librarian, and an educated environmentalist.....passions she never translated into public statements or support.

Seems a pity that Laura Bush has been little more than Pat Nixon-esque campaign prop and pretty photo op for her husband. Even Nancy Reagan, with her designer clothes and Beverly Hills socialite girlfriends, deeply cared about the DARE program which urges children to "Just Say No" to drugs. (George Bush plans to entirely terminate the DARE program, too, in 2007 )
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Let's take a jog around the liberal blogosphere to see what others have to say about Laura Bush.....

Here's an eye-catching column today from author David Corn, political correspondent for The Nation : "Laura Bush to the rescue!That's the solution prescribed by Sally Quinn, grand dame of Georgetown and occasional contributor of essays to the Style section of The Washington Post In Friday's edition, she publishes an open letter to the first lady, beseeching her to save her husband's presidency...."

Blogger Captain Dyke recalls liberal activist comedian Margaret Cho's humor about Mrs. Bush: "First Lady Laura Bush, meanwhile, 'seems to be much smarter than he is,' Cho told me. 'She seems like she hates him — in fact, she seems like she burns with hatred. Her smile is just a little bit too, well, wide. It’s more like a grimace.' And since Mrs. Bush is reputed to be a secret cigarette smoker, 'I think she’s trying to kill him with second-hand smoke.' "

And Jacs at LiveJournal asks herself: "So... do I watch Laura Bush (the US president's 'conservative psuedo-feminist' wife) on Larry King tonight or do I watch the next episode of Dr. Who on SciFi?....The answer is obvious..."
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