Lesson Learned?

With an approval rating as low as his, Bush needs to learn one very important lesson. You need every supporter you can get.
This is a lesson that he has learned twice now. In the wake of the Iraq war, which Democrats only initially supported when the political winds were blowing in that direction, Bush has only been able to get things through when he has had the strong support of his base, and, in a few instances, the majority of the American people. He finally got his funding for the troops without a timetable built in because the Democrats, constantly with their fingers wetted and held aloft to test the direction the wind is blowing, knew that cutting funding for the troops would be political suicide, just as it was after Vietnam, even though it was the other party in the White House.
But whenever he has tried to buck his stalwart supporters and go it alone, he loses. He should have know what a powerful force his conservative base could be with the Harriet Myers affair. He is never going to get the kind of support from Democrats that he gets from the conservatives, because of a major difference - conservatives genuinely want him to win, and Democrats absolutely want him to lose. Democrats knew that this immigration boondoggle was a win-win for them. If it passed, they could potentially swell their voter rolls, and it would fracture the Republican base. If it failed, then who cares, because it had already been successfully labeled as Bush's bill. So the failure is attributed to him. Don't get me wrong. Bush contributed heavily to owning this bill. So either way, they win.
Bush continues to underestimate the determination and the power wielded by his conservative base. Maybe they don't represent the majority view, but on this issue, they were definitely under a pretty large tent of people opposed to this bill.
You don't start insulting your base, especially at a time when it isn't the easiest thing to be a Bush supporter. You don't shoot your friends in the back, especially when they are so few and far between. I realize that he is past campaigning and into full legacy mode, but none of the great presidents throughout the history of this country made their name by selling out their supporters.