It’s unlikely he’ll be able to fix Social Security at this point, of course, or ensure that his tax cuts are made permanent before he leaves office, but there’s still immigration reform, a rare area of agreement for him with most Congressional Democrats. If he can also make real progress on Iraq via the troop surge, he may still surprise a few folks. Naturally, he won’t get much credit no matter what he does, and just keeping his administration afloat in a politically hostile Washington may be a feat in itself.
But in Bush’s case no news may be the best news. With the media drawing the public’s attention to other matters, Bush may finally get some much needed space in which to operate. And if he can’t hope for kind words from today’s national opinion makers, perhaps history will view him with a less jaundiced eye.