Don’t look now but the GOP is charging back. Hard to tell when it happened, but it’s been slow, methodical and steady. No more is this more evident than on the improved situation in Iraq which has the country taking notice. The fact is that significant progress has been made and not even the leftwing Bush Bash media can hide it.

“USA TODAY’s Susan Page reports that President Bush is making some headway in arguing that the increase in U.S. troops in Iraq is showing military progress.

In the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, taken Friday through Sunday, the proportion of those who said the additional troops are “making the situation better” rose to 31% from 22% a month ago. Those who said it was “not making much difference” dropped to 41% from 51%.

About the same number said it was making things worse: 24% now, 25% a month ago.”

These increased numbers of public support show what I’ve always said. Let the American public see real progress in Iraq and they will get behind this war en-mass. General Patraeus is proving himself to be all the leader we know him to be and Al Qaeda IS effectively on the run in most of Iraq. But as it was reported today this isn’t only by the show of brute force, but by that brute force showing Iraqis that we mean business when it comes to a secure and stable Iraq.

This change in events is but one sign of the rising fortunes. There are others. The fact is that just as Al Qaeda is in full retreat so are the Democrats in their quest to show that they are the new big deal in town.

Fact is that if the Democratic Party were a sports team they would have fired the coaches (Pelosi and Reid) and started over by trading everyone else away. Just as the Republican star has begun to rise the Democrat’s start has crashed to earth with a resounding thud. It’s no where more evident when you see headlines like this from the Ny Times:

“Bush Still Wields the Threat of Terrorism”. So the question to The Times is “So you’re saying that the threat of terrorism is imaginary?”

The answer would have to be yes and even Democrats like Obama agree.

“Everybody was afraid they might be branded as soft on terrorism,‚Äù Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a Democratic presidential candidate, said Monday while speaking to Iowa voters.

Like 27 other Senate Democrats, including his presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Obama voted against the eavesdropping provision, but found himself on a losing side of a Republican-led coalition, in which 16 Democrats joined 43 Republicans and one independent in approving the measure, 60 to 28. In an interview on Monday, Mr. Obama lamented that Democrats had “become comfortable with the rhetoric George Bush uses.”

“Rhetoric?” Well that coming from the dolt that wants to pull out of Iraq and bomb Pakistan. Note the continued use of the phrase “eavesdropping” simply because Democrats have signed on. Remember it was “Spying” when The Times leaked the story out in 2005.

Nevertheless we are beginning to see the Democrats do what I said they would do if they ever got power back – blow it. They can’t help it, they have always been and will continue to be unfit to lead in these times of terrorism and by 2008 I’m betting the rest of the country will agree as well.