Recent polls are showing something rare in the American political environment--despite the efforts of the President to use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to push through a major domestic change, the polls show that his effort is resulting in a reduction of support for his proposed change in Social Security.

Figuring out why this is happening is difficult.  Conventional wisdom has it that a re-elected President, for a brief time stands at the height of his power, as the power of incumbency peaks.  Yet Bush has failed to capitalize on his status as a re-elected President.

However, a good portion of why this has happened involves the disconnect between the President's behavior and his carefully-constructed image.  Indeed it is the widening disconnect between the two which is leading to high levels of distrust in the President and the increasing free-fall in the poll numbers.

Since September 11, 2001, the President's team has carefully cultivated his image as a resolute executive, who stakes out bold positions, holds them and leads others to support them.  But the President's actions on Social Security demonstrate a personality who wants things done but does not want to take responsibility for getting them done.

Take Bush's plan on the issue.  There is none:

Fixing Social Security permanently will require an open, candid review of the options. Some have suggested limiting benefits for wealthy retirees. Former Congressman Tim Penny has raised the possibility of indexing benefits to prices rather than wages. During the 1990s, my predecessor, President Clinton, spoke of increasing the retirement age. Former Senator John Breaux suggested discouraging early collection of Social Security benefits. The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan recommended changing the way benefits are calculated. All these ideas are on the table.

From the beginning of this process, Bush has made it clear that he was not going to advance a plan of his own, but try and get anyone and everyone else to carry the load.  This is a far cry from a decisive leader who stakes out a position and then forces others to come to it.

This position has put Bush in some rather comical rhetorical situations where the President famously decried attempts to get him "to negotiate with myself in public."  Indeed, Bush saw expectations that he would lead on this issue as a positive conspiracy:  "It is all part of trying to get me to set the parameters apart from the Congress."

As Bush attempts to change the single largest and most popular government program, the public is becoming more and more accustomed to seeing the reality of this President and the way he makes decisions (or fails to make them).  They don't like what they see:  A USA Today poll showed support for the President down 8 percent to 35 percent in a mere three weeks.  Other polls were even less favorable: CBS News showed only 31 percent of Americans were confident in George W. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about Social Security.

These numbers are critical to the President and the success of his second term.  Trust, once lost, is gone forever.  An image, once destroyed, cannot be restored to where it once was.  The President has to start getting out front on this issue with his own program and be seen as taking his own risks if he is to save his own skin.  The smart money says he won't.