TAKE A BOW FOR THE OLD REVOLUTION:

Bush hews to bold style for 2d term (Peter S. Canellos, January 20, 2005, Boston Globe)

George W. Bush will begin his second term as president as he did his first: by surprising official Washington with an ambitious and audacious agenda that includes such deeply divisive issues as Social Security, immigration, restricting jury awards, and a controversial education program.

The president had campaigned on those issues, but many political observers felt the closeness of the election, the limited time available to a second-term president to enact his program, and the pressures of foreign policy would combine to force him to trim his sails.

But now, after four years of underestimating the president, many Washington insiders say Bush's bold second-term agenda fits into a pattern: The president campaigns on issues that seem a bit ambitious even to supporters, builds public support even without a sweeping electoral mandate, and then sees his agenda pushed through by a team of political operatives, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, that most agree is the best of any recent administration.

Does anyone else get the feeling that if a boy stood on Capitol Hill and cried wolf some significant portion of the MSM and Democrats would come running?

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 20, 2005 10:29 AM