WASHINGTON -- It has not been a good two months for President George W. Bush. In mid-March, the president's men took the rubber band off their enormous roll of cash and went to work with media designed to present a softer, gentler, yet strong president while painting their prospective opponent, Sen. John Kerry, as wobbling into the left corner whence he could not possibly escape to become a meaningful challenger.

Two months down the road, with $100 million having been spent on the president's two-phase message, the president's poll numbers have plummeted. His job-approval ratings are now in the mid-40s, and his opponent has begun to lead him in head-to-head races.

We cannot blame the media. We cannot blame the campaign organization. They have all done their work efficiently with solid messages. The negative spots have raised Kerry's negative numbers substantially in all of the places that the Bush campaign people had hoped. But the campaign, for all of its extravagance, has been overwhelmed by real world news. Pictures of atrocities by American service personnel at Abu Ghraib opened the floodgates of bad news from that forlorn land.