Sometimes politics in the US just amazes me. So the US public shows very little approval of the job that Bush is doing, and shows very little confidence in the US war in Iraq. So what does Bush do? He gives series of speeches on Iraq. What did that do? Well, it substantially increased his popularity, and the percentage of Americans who think that Bush is making progress in Iraq rose sharply. If you know very little, you are very susceptible to manipulation and conditioning.