Today's NY Times has an analysis about how Bush is setting the record for becoming the fastest second term lame duck in history:
Five months after President Bush was sworn in for another four years, his political authority appears to be ebbing, both within his own party, where members of Congress are increasingly if sporadically going their own way, and among Democrats, who have discovered that they pay little or no price for defying him.The whole piece is a pretty good read, but I especially liked this segment:
The cumulative effect of his difficulties in the last few months has been to pierce the sense of dominance that he sought to project after his re-election and to heighten concerns among Republicans in Congress that voters will hold them, as the party in power, responsible for failure to address the issues of most concern to the public.Remember last November when Bush proclaimed his mandate despite the small margin of his victory? The media just accepted the statement and treated him like a conquering hero. Wrong.
"The political capital he thought he had has dwindled to very little, and he overstated how much he had to begin with," said Allan J. Lichtman, a presidential historian at American University in Washington.
Bush's approval ratings are collapsing. The media is finally grasping that this is a failed presidency.
