young George "was a very avid and skillful poker player" when he was a business administration student and that "one of the secrets of a successful poker player is to encourage your opponent to bet a lot of chips on a losing hand. This is a pattern of behavior one sees repeatedly in George W. Bush's political career."

Indeed one does. In the months following Lifson's observation, the president sat back as John Kerry's consultants, the Iowa caucus voters, the Democratic Party at large, and the media convinced themselves that the one card that trumps Bush's leadership in the war on terror was Kerry's four months in Vietnam, and then bet everything on it.
They just lost that hand.

So after six rough months, Cool Hand Bush still has most of his chips, and John Kerry is riffling through empty pockets. The likely outcome this November is an increased Republican majority in the House, a couple of extra Senate seats, and a second term for Bush. I might be wrong. Anything is possible. But the reluctance of all the European and most of the American press to admit the possibility that Bush isn't a loser suggests that they too got way overinvested in John Kerry's very weak hand.