It's becoming quite clear that Mr. Bush has overestimated his power and accelerated his lame duck status. 45% approval. Little support for Social Security reform. Propaganda. Gannon. More torture. Rough confirmation hearings for Gonzales, Rice, and Chertoff. The Kerik debacle. Ignored 9/11 warnings. North Korea calling Bush's bluff. Credibility issues regarding an approach to Iran. A weird inaugural address that scared many on both sides of the ideological isle.
I'd really like to savor the slow-motion train wreck, but something's eating at me. Will the Bush administration allow itself to be crushed before it's really even begun its second term? The grand plans of Rove and the PNAC neocons have been decades in the making. Bush has taken up the mantle of "big ideas" and "big reforms" here and abroad, most of which are in keeping with those plans -- and none of which are possible with such a dismal (for them) array of problems. Will they really allow it all to crumble in a few short months without taking some sort of action?
And when I say "action", I mean something scary. Something that will rally the nation around Mr. Bush again. Here's to hoping I'm just being paranoid, but we all know what this crew is capable of when threatened. Let's just keep our eyes open. Impeachment, lame duck status, approvals in the 30s, and retaking the Congress in '06 are all possibilities. But a twinkle in the eye of Karl Rove could change all of it.