Worried about President Bush's wartime popularity, Democrats are beginning a concerted election year drive to criticize his stewardship of the economy and portray themselves as the party of job growth and fiscal responsibility.

The danger lies in political use of that wartime popularity.

By the time President George Bush declared Kuwait liberated, the unemployment rate had already begun its usual postrecession climb and the president's wartime popularity evaporated.

As Mr. Bush's father can attest, a president's wartime popularity can be ephemeral, particularly if war is followed by recession.

Mr. Bush is still riding a wave of wartime popularity; the public still doesn't know how bad the budgetary situation is.

They do not seem, as yet, to be having a lot of success, no doubt in part because of Mr. Bush's spectacular wartime popularity.

The need for simple tales of good triumphing over evil may explain the wartime popularity of superheroes.

Republicans, eager for their party to ride Mr. Bush's wartime popularity in the fall, accused Democrats of turning their back on the armed forces.

But in fact Mr. Bush's wartime popularity may not do Republican candidates much good.

While the wartime popularity helps the president, he said, for Republican candidates, "It looks marvelous until you have to go out and actually have a debate."