George W. Bush: The Lame Duck President

"George Bush is the reason George Bush is a very lame duck. He got us into a war without any thought to getting out. He has alienated our international allies. His vaunted Homeland Security Department is a joke. His handling of Katrina was awful. His effort to compensate for a bad job on Katrina has taken him to Louisiana enough times to become a registered voter there. With failure after failure, President Bush doesn't need any help being lame; he's doing just fine."—Bob Beckel, USA TODAY, October 12, 2005.

If the 2006 midterm elections "go the way pollsters and pundits predict," Peter Baker and Michael A. Fletcher wrote in the October 18, 2006, Washington Post, the clocks in the White House West Wing "might as well read 20 days" instead of the 825 days left in President George W. Bush's second term in office.

"At least that would be the end of George W. Bush's presidency as he has known it. If Democrats win one or both houses of Congress on Nov. 7, the result will transform the remainder of Bush's time in office and dramatically shift the balance of power in Washington. Ending a dozen years basically passed in exile, congressional Democrats would have a chance to help steer the nation again—following a campaign spent mostly assailing Bush's vision rather than detailing their own," Baker and Fletcher wrote.

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Related SourceWatch Resources

• Also see 110th United States Congress

External links

The Lame Duck President

2005

• William Douglas, James Kuhnhenn and Steven Thomma, "Bush's 2nd-term agenda seems to be petering out. On a limb: Some analysts say the administration is quacking like a lame duck and polls say job approval ratings are slipping," Knight-Ridder News Service (Salt Lake Tribune), April 24, 2005.
• Howard Fineman, "Bush's Political Capital. Across a range of issues, the president seems to have lost his touch. Can he recover?" Newsweek (MSNBC), May 6, 2005.
• Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei, "Bush's Political Capital Spent, Voices in Both Parties Suggest. Poll Numbers Sag as Setbacks Mount at Home and Abroad," Washington Post, May 31, 2005.
• Faiz Shakir, "Bush’s Lame-Duck Press Conference," Think Progress, May 31, 2005.
• Op-Ed: "An exceptional lame duck," Washington Times, June 2, 2005.
• John Fortier, "Bush has lost control of the agenda," The Hill, June 9, 2005.
• Richard W. Stevenson, "News Analysis: No lame duck, but Bush is limping," International Herald Tribune, June 20, 2005.
• Michael in New York, "Bush: Lame Duck And Lame Commander In Chief," AMERICAblog, June 29, 2005.
• Gerald Rellick, "A Lame Duck Can Be Dangerous," Tom Paine's Corner Blog, July 17, 2005.
• Helen Thomas, "Lame Duck Bush Has Swagger, Not Waddle. President Continues To Do As He Pleases," The Boston Channel, August 3, 2005.
• Jim Lobe, "Sailing Toward Lame Duck Land on Katrina's Waters," Inter Press News Service, September 15, 2005.
• Nick Gillespie, "Lame Duck, Big Spender. Surprise: Bush beats LBJ as federal spendthrift," Reason Online, September 21, 2005.
• Bill Schneider, "Signs of a lame duck president?" CNN, October 7, 2005.
• Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel, "How to end the lame-duck rut," Common Ground Blog/USA TODAY, October 12, 2005.
• James Ridgeway, "Libby Indictments a Kiss of Death for Bush White House. From Plame Affair to Lame-Duck Affair," Mondo Washington/Village Voice, October 28, 2006.
• "DNC: Lame Duck Flies to the Right, Ignores Working Americans' Priorities," U.S. Newswire, November 3, 2005.
• "Is Bush a Lame Duck? Or a Cooked Goose?" DownWithTyranny! Blogspot, November 15, 2005.
• Bernard Gwertzman, Interview with James M. Lindsay: "Iraq Completely Dominates Bush’s Second Term," Council on Foreign Relations, December 19, 2005.

2006

• Jonathan Singer, "Bush Quacks Like a Lame Duck," MyDD, February 17, 2006.
• Niall Ferguson, "Watch out, this 'lame duck' president has nothing to lose," The Telegraph (UK), March 12, 2006.
• Editorial: "Crispy Duck," The New Republic, posted April 27, 2006; May 8, 2006 issue.
• Dick Meyer, "Bush Is Now A Lame Duck. CBS' Meyer: Forget November, Forget '08; President Is Done," CBS News, May 17, 2006.
• Henry C.K. Liu, "The lame duck and the greenhorn," Asia Times, June 23, 2006.
• Karen Kwiatkowski, "The Lame Duck of Destruction," LewRockwell.com, July 24, 2006.
• Robert Kuttner, "Prepare for lame-duck jockeying," Boston Globe, September 9, 2006.
• Steve Benen, "If it looks like a lame duck, and it quacks like a lame duck…," The Carpetbagger Report, October 6, 2006.
• Peter Baker and Michael A. Fletcher, "Elections May Leave Bush An Early Lame Duck," Washington Post, October 18, 2006.
• Rupert Cornwell, "Enter Bush the elder's statesman, to relief all round," The Independent (UK), November 10, 2006.
• "Outgoing US Congress must deal with spending bills, tax relief to wrap up year," Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), November 10, 2006.
• Douglas Stanglin, "Bush agenda faces uphill climb in lame-duck Congress," USA TODAY, November 10, 2006.
• Jim Abrams, "Lame Duck Session Tackles Spending Bills," Associated Press (Fox News), November 10, 2006.
• Justin Webb, "US envoy to UN 'set to lose job'," BBC, November 10, 2006. re John R. Bolton
• "Lame Ducks Facing Full Plate," UPI (Washington Times), November 11, 2006.
• Andrew Taylor, "Lame-Duck Congress to Reconvene," Associated Press (Washington Post), November 13, 2006.
• Carl Hulse, "For post-election Congress, extensive to-do list is awaiting action," New York Times (International Herald Tribune), November 13, 2006.
• Richard Simon, "Lame-duck Congress faces many tasks. Spending bill, tax breaks among items on agenda," Los Angeles Times (Boston Globe), November 13, 2006.
• Nicholas Johnston and James Rowley, "Congress Weighs Spending, Nominees as Republican Rule Wanes," Bloomberg, November 13, 2006.
• Steven R. Weisman, "Vietnam Trade Bill Stumbles in House," New York Times, November 14, 2006. re Trade Agreements
• Steve Hirsh, "GOP takes Vietnam trade vote off table," Washington Times, November 15, 2006.

Additional External Links

• Includes links to biographies, profiles, news articles, pro- and anti-Bush websites, and more.
• Also see 110th United States Congress/Articles & Commentary.
• Also see Bush administration approval ratings.

Note: This page created October 18, 2006.