U.S. News noted a couple of weeks ago that the White House is eyeing a Bush comeback. The president’s team believes 2008 has the potential to be a “legacy year,” and the loyal Bushies “are predicting a remarkable poll shift to about 45 percent favorable by the time he leaves office next year.”

If recent economic and Iraq news are any indication, that seems highly unlikely, but in either case, before Republicans get their hopes up, it’s worth keeping in mind that Bush’s “comeback” will be facing some “pushback.”

A liberal advocacy group plans to spend $8.5 million in a drive to make sure President Bush’s public approval doesn’t improve as his days in the White House come to an end.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking, because at first, I was thinking it, too: this seems like an unnecessary investment of $8.5 million. Bush is already extraordinarily unpopular, is widely seen as abject failure, and has no realistic chance of seeing a political recovery this year. A coordinated campaign to keep his approval ratings down is overkill.

But there’s a flip-side.