Abu Grhaib: The Deal-Breaker for Bush?

Jay Bryant posted an opinion piece yesterday where he claims that the prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Grhaib prison is the straw that breaks the back of the Bush 2004 campaign. His theory? Bush's main advantage up to this point is the invulnerability of a war president who can always point to the troops as the reason to support him.

The one thing the administration had going for it with every American voter were the troops. Not any more. A half dozen rotten apples have spoiled the barrelful of goodwill enjoyed by the soldiers in Iraq. Every war critic in Congress or on the talk shows or in the neighborhood bar has always agreed on one thing: we've got to support our troops. What that meant was never particularly clear, but the cold hard fact is that every time somebody says it from now on, the door is open for some wiseacre in the audience to sneer, "Yeah, so they can abuse some more prisoners."

My opinion? Abu Grhaib is an abberation and far enough away from the election that it will be no more than scar tissue by the time the election comes around. Unless Kerry can provide a bigger reason to vote against Bush, the President still has an ace up his sleeve: the June 30 handover of authority to Iraqi authorities. Kerry will not be facing a president getting us into war, but a president who has taken the first important steps to get us out of the war.