Can President Bush turn the corner?

After a number of weeks of bad headlines and falling poll ratings, there are finally a few signs of a possible recovery for the President and his administration.

First, the president finally helped himself on Supreme Court nominations, both by allowing the withdrawal of the Harriet Miers pick and then choosing the obviously well qualified Samuel Alioto. While Ms. Miers is very likely a nice woman and a good corporate lawyer, there was no good reason for the president to soldier on with a nominee roundly condemned by many of his core supporters as a crony with little experience in constitutional jurisprudence and no developed judicial philosophy.

Judge Alioto, in contrast with Ms Miers and like Chief Justice Roberts, has a strong academic credentials, service on the court of appeals and experience in appellate advocacy before the Supreme Court. Even a profile in the New York Times was quite favorable. "Judge Alito's jurisprudence has been methodical, cautious, respectful of precedent and solidly conservative, legal scholars said. In cases involving the great issues of the day - abortion, the death penalty and the separation of church and state - Judge Alito has typically taken the conservative side. Yet he has not flaunted his political views inside or outside the courthouse." Of course, Democratic diehards like Senator Chuck Schumer will attempt to derail the nomination, but it is hard to believe that they will succeed. On the positive side, the President now has the united support of his base on what it views as a crucial issue.

Second, the long Plame-Wilson investigation seems to be coming to an end, with less damage than some of the president's detractors had hoped for. Obviously, Scooter Libby's indictment for perjury is a minus, but unless Karl Rove is eventually included in a subsequent indictment, things could have been far worse. None of the original allegations investigated by Peter Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, led to charges, with the sole indictments relating to conduct after the investigation commenced. At least on the present record, it is going to be hard for the political left to make the case that Mr. Libby's allegedly false testimony to the grand jury and investigators is more than the misguided acts of a single individual rather than a part of a wide ranging conspiracy to sell the Iraq war on false pretenses.

There are other rays of hope for the Bush Administration as well. The elections in Iraq went well with a new constitution ratified, and even more significantly, with significant participation of the Sunni community in the electoral process. Gasoline prices, while still much higher than a year ago, are beginning to go down a bit. The federal response to the hurricanes after Katrina was by all accounts much better than the one in New Orleans. The economic numbers, including overall growth and employment figures, remain quite strong.

It is obviously much easier to get into political trouble than to get out of it and the mainstream media is rarely on the President's side. Moreover, another expected reverse (for example, a Karl Rove indictment) could further roil the political waters. Still, there does seem to be a decent prospect for Mr. Bush's standing to improve.