One year ago the headlines read.
“Emboldened by a solid election victory, President Bush heads into his second term with an ambitious agenda to change America and the world.”
Bush promised to use his “political capital” to get stuff done in a national capital that was all but draped in the official colors of his party.
He was going to set Iraq on the road to democracy, defeat global terrorism, and send a wave of freedom across the Middle East. At home, he planned to extend his tax cuts to future generations, revamp the legal system and the tax code, and bring about dramatic changes in Social Security.
Well, how did he do, folks? Do you feel safer than a year ago? Is our government working more efficiently and ethically?
OK, I’m not being fair. The president is going through a bit of a rough patch, what with the U.S. death toll in Iraq climbing to new, heartbreaking numbers, the withdrawal of a Supreme Court nominee his enemies didn’t much like and his friends hated, and the indictment of the top aide and alter ego to the most powerful vice president in American history.
Like a growing number of Americans I have lost faith in this administration’s ability to prosecute the war in Iraq, a war that it is now clear they were hell-bent on pursuing no matter the evidence or the risks.
After the Katrina debacle,I have little faith that the first administration run by a Harvard Business School grad knows how to manage in a crisis. Yeah, I’m a worrier. They say there is progress in Iraq, even if it’s hard to discern on the nightly news. The economy is growing at a decent clip, even if that’s news to the poor.
But in case my worries are realized, I hope the hapless opposition in Washington spends some time crafting sensible, exciting alternatives to the currrent policies. Three years suddenly seems like an awfully long time.