How poorly we understood Bush in 2000. We could not imagine the possibility that the United States would barely be on speaking terms with some of its staunchest allies, and that America would be reviled around the world as a bullying, imperialist superpower. How far we have fallen from the bright fiscal forecast in 2000, with surpluses that offered the promise of debt paydown now replaced with a staggering $500 billion annual deficit and the national debt projected to exceed $9 trillion by 2010. As for Bush being a uniter, sadly, the nation is more polarized than it has been since the 1960s.
October 21, 2004 5:28 AM