It was just a year ago that George W. Bush the straight shooter defeated John Kerry the flip-flopper to earn re-election in the midst of domestic insecurity and a dangerous foreign war. But one year later, with the president’s approval rating at a dismal 36 percent and polls showing that Americans increasingly lack confidence in his once-signature strengths, the wisdom of that supposed mandate is growing hazy.

Bush’s recent behavior has only served to exacerbate our doubts about his plan for a successful (read: possible) finale to the war in Iraq. At a Veterans Day speech last week, Bush dusted off his old “war critics are unpatriotic” attack on those — increasingly from his own party — who want some much-needed honesty from the West Wing as the war approaches its third year. Bush’s jab was nothing if not a cheap shot, and its severely poor timing rightly earned Bush another tumble in the public’s confidence.

His speech’s attack on “revisionist historians” fell equally flat in the midst of boiling controversy — and ever ambiguity — over his original justification for the war. Though it hasn’t been proven yet that Bush himself lied, his central claims for the urgency of the Iraq mission have all but vaporized: No weapons of mass destruction and no functioning nuclear weapons program were found.

Once again, the president has his terms confused. It is not revisionist history that is being written, it is actual history — and unless his superficial attacks suddenly find a note of sincerity, it is a good bet that those histories will not look kindly on him.