poll says Bush would lose to "fill in the blank"

"How am I doing?" Ed Koch used to ask continually as he walked about a New York City smothered by his outsized personality.

George W. Bush doesn't ask this question, and now he has a very good reason not to. A new poll by Quinnipiac University indicates that if an election were held now he would lose to anyone fielded against him, in other words, candidate Fill-in-the-blank is doing better than the man some call the incumbent president.

Polls are mostly useful for those who find their results agreeable, so this one will be ignored by the White House, especially since this is a regime which knows it is not going to have to depend on a free election to stay in power.