'Second-term-itis' afflicts Bush, casting doubt on future successes

[question everything]

Analysis: 'Second-term-itis' afflicts Bush, casting doubt on future successes

By George E. Condon Jr.
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

June 6, 2005

WASHINGTON – Less than five months after roaring into his second term with a bold agenda, President Bush has hit some rough times, raising questions about the fate of that agenda and the future of his presidency.

Having sunk in public opinion polls back to his level of support before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Bush began a counteroffensive last week with a news conference designed to help him regain momentum with the public and with a Republican-led Congress showing signs of independence from the White House line.

"It's second-term-itis, and he's got it," presidential scholar Stephen Hess said. "We all know that in a second term the sand runs out fast, and it's maybe running out a little faster at the moment."

The president's plight is in great contrast to his post-election boast when he said, "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." But that bank is running low lately. The president has recently been forced to threaten his first veto after 50 members of his party rebuffed him on stem cell research.

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Most troubling to the White House is that the Republicans who control the Congress and were so compliant in the first term are showing an increasing willingness to stray from the path Bush laid out for the second term... Last week's news conference gave the president an opportunity to regain some of his lost momentum. Proclaiming that "I don't worry about anything here in Washington, D.C.," he used the Rose Garden session to urge skeptics to take a longer view and not to dismiss him already as a lame duck.

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050606/news_1n6bush.html

[Dawgs]

1. 1) This implies past successess...

2)Clinton, and even Reagan, were very popular throughout there second terms. I wish they would quit comparing Bush's second term to others.

[Imagevision]

2. Simply compare Bush's second term to his first as it goes down the toilet