Bush fighting to stay relevant

[cal04]

With George W. Bush struggling to stay relevant in his final 22 months in the White House, his administration is looking more and more like the incredible shrinking presidency.

He finds himself increasingly hemmed in by public approval ratings stuck in the low 30 percent range, a hostile Democratic majority in Congress and an unpopular war that has eroded his credibility at home and abroad.

"The real danger is that the president becomes politically irrelevant, that he presides instead of leads," said Terry Madonna, a political scientist at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania.

(snip)

"This is a full-blown lame-duck period in which the president's stature is diminishing," Madonna said. "Barring a crisis, Congress and the American people won't be paying much attention to what he has to say."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04289429.htm

[Marblehead]

1. it's that "barring a crisis"

that has me worried

[soothsayer]

2. I don't think anyone trusts him not to F up a MIHOP again. He got

lucky the first time.

[tanyev]

3. Ah, yes, what was that PNAC wording?

"The process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor."