Tom's dirty little secret - He no longer approves of Bush

If you're into presidential polling data, Gallup has a demographic breakdown of Bush's poll slide since January of this year. Generally speking, the erosion this year has come primarily from white, christian, youngish, suburbanites who self identify as moderate Republicans.

(Note, this poll uses self identification so there's no way to know if those "moderate Republicans" used to self identify as "conservative Republicans.")

And, just as a bit of empirical evidence from down here in Houston, many of the people I know who were strong Bush supporters in 2004(not fervent, but strong) are beginning to turn on Bush. Among this group of successful, family, christian suburbanites, Bush is fading mainly on the issues of the deficit, oil prices, and Iraq. It's really kinda funny the way I've become aware of this.

At this point, it's not that they're openly badmouthing Bush, usually, they're catching me alone or pulling me aside at social functions, dinner parties, tennis groups, etc, and starting to talk about it. They know that I am firmly anti-Bush and it's almost like they're seeking some sort of validation for their change of opinion. They speak in low tones looking to see if anyone is coming over. It's like they feel they have come to some secret heretical belief and are afraid that other people in their group might find out that they no longer believe in Bush.

Yet, at the same time, they feel the need to talk about it. It's like they're afraid that they're outside the mainstream and wrong somehow, and just want me to tell them they're OK. I really just can't adequately describe it. It's just a very weird dynamic that's appeared in about a dozen conversations over the last month.

(And, I wouldn't project this as some sort of plus for the Dems come election time as only one of these conversations even mentioned the Dems.)