Thousands of troops have died fighting a war he chose to fight — a war that increasingly appears to be a microcosm of something much larger than what the American people had bargained for. He seems to be stretching presidential power beyond what his predecessors ever imagined. His approval ratings hover around the freezing point. It's no coincidence that his party is beginning to stray from him, and the press is writing him off as a failure.

What sounds like a thumbnail sketch of George W. Bush in 2006, is actually a description of Harry S. Truman's nightmarish 1950. In fact, these underestimated and oversimplified presidents have more in common than commonly thought [say conservatives].

As Niall Ferguson reminds us in "Colossus," after peaking at 81 percent in the middle of 1950, Truman's approval rating plummeted to 26 percent in early 1951. The main cause of both the rise and fall was Korea. The patriotic lift Truman enjoyed after coming to South Korea's defense in late June 1950 was short-lived. By the time midterm elections rolled around in November of that year, the body bags were streaming back across the Pacific. Not surprisingly, Truman's Democrats lost 28 seats in the House and another 5 in the Senate on Election Day.