MATT WELCH writes in the National Post that Bush is losing the benefit of the doubt. He says that it’s because too many PR gimmicks are undermining public trust, and he blames Karl Rove.

I think there’s a lot to that. As I wrote week before last, keeping people behind the war effort means retaining their trust. And it’s hard to retain their trust when you’re engaging in gimmicks and evasions. There’s been way too much of that (and way too little visible action) from the White House lately, and the Administration is paying the price. The problem is that gimmicks work during normal times, when people don’t much care about politics, don’t pay much attention, and — because they don’t expect much from politicians anyway — don’t get too angry about attempts to mislead them. But all that changes in wartime. You need trust — and to keep it, you actually have to be trustworthy. You can fudge that for a little while, but not very long, and probably not for as long as overconfident political operatives think they can.

I wrote some months ago that if Bush took a tumble on this it would happen very fast once it started. I don’t think he’s to that point yet, but I think he’s getting closer. Is anyone in the Administration paying attention?