Under the Bush administration and GOP majorities in the House and Senate, they simply cannot take responsibility. This is the fundamental reason why they’re going to lose in November.
The Republibots spend money like crack whores on their cronies but then create massive unfunded/underfunded messes at home. Really odd that hypocritical GOPsters have no problem defending a no-bid deal for Halliburton on the specious grounds that “there’s a war on… we gotta move fast” but when it comes to Homeland Security, they have completely left the U.S. port cities with their pants around their ankles for nearly 3 years. (“Hey, we had so many bidding and budgeting formalities to comply with, but at least we got 1 port ready…” they lamely offer up.) Bush will lose because Americans know we don’t need the smoking-gun proof of Republican incompetence to come in the form of a mushroom cloud on U.S. soil.
Not that competence even matters to Bush. Whenever massive, cringe-inducing incompetence is found, the Bush administration is absolutely unwilling to root it out. No shakeups at the CIA, FBI, the cabinet or elsewhere. No amount of whistleblowing by the people in the trenches even matters. Even if nobody thinks Bush is smart (Republicans try to point to his cluelessness to excuse his worst failures as a president), there was at least an expectation that Bush would at least use his limited faculties to pick and choose among the ideas floated by highly skilled advisers. Bush will lose because he clearly cares more about appearing to have a unified silent front than taking even baby steps toward encouraging excellence.