Bush, Rove "inexplicably upbeat" on GOP's election chances, but they think we're making progress in Iraq, too

The delusion factor is alive and well at the White House:

The official White House line of supreme self-assurance comes from the top down. Bush has publicly and privately banished any talk of losing the GOP majorities, in part to squelch any loss of nerve among his legions. Come January, he said last week, "We'll have a Republican speaker and a Republican leader of the Senate."

The question is whether this is a case of justified confidence -- based on Bush's and Rove's electoral record and knowledge of the money, technology and other assets at their command -- or of self-delusion. Even many Republicans suspect the latter.

Sound familiar? This sounds eerily like Bush's talk about progress in Iraq. That delusion is killing people. Bush is too focused on politics to notice that we're facing one of the worst months yet in Iraq. So far, 53 soldiers have been killed in October.

Let's do everything we can between now and November 7th to prove Bush and Rove wrong, wrong, wrong.