Noam Scheiber Reality Check: Scheiber wonders about the WashPost poll that shows Bush steady to gaining on most issues, including national security. Why, he wonders, is Bush not taking a hit in the midst of Dick Clarke/al-Sadr/Falluja/etc.:

My own feeling is that all of this will eventually (and, if the news on Iraq and 9/11 gets much worse, pretty soon) reach a kind of critical mass, at which point public opinion will come crashing down on Bush. But, who knows? Maybe the cynical Republican bet is basically right: Maybe most Americans are conditioned, in a kind of Pavlovian way, to associate any discussion of war or terror with good feelings for Bush, and either just ignore or fail to assimilate the details of the discussion...

Well, just look at Noam's subsequent post, referring to Bush's supposed November oil-price deal with Prince Bandar:

. . . how nice is it to hear John Kerry say stuff like this?

"I can guarantee you that, if president, I understand not just how we do that but also how we need to end this sweetheart relationship with a bunch of Arab countries that still allow money to move to Hamas and Hezbollah and the Al-Aqsa brigades," he said. "We a need a president to stand up and lead the world to a more responsible place to create an entity to make peace within the Middle East."

You've got all the clues, Noam. Figure it out. (Big hint: Read that Kerry quote again. What the hell does it mean?)