Just kidding, of course.

Actually, it’s hard to imagine two political events LESS likely to win the president points. ...

Yes, Bush has been down politically before, and recovered smartly. He’s a fighter, and has the ability to ignore the gloom and doom around him. Yes, the Democrats don’t have much of an answer to him other than to shout "no" on a host of issues. ...

But there are other factors at work. One of them is the set of decisions he’s made on where to spend his political capital. In Austin in 1999, he told me and my NEWSWEEK colleagues over lunch one day that he had learned from his father’s experience: if you accumulate "political capital" -- as his dad did as Liberator of Kuwait in 1991 -- you have to "spend it" on bold action.

Well, this Bush chose Social Security -- a brave, fundamental and far-sighted choice in many ways. ...

Bush’s other problem is his Blue-Red approach to politics. The Dems are only too happy these days to embrace it, willingly locked in a sense of victimhood and minority status. The Dems self-isolation would work for Bush -- but only if he could keep all of his Republican colleagues in line. But he can’t. Bush remains very popular among Republican voters -- Reagan-like in that respect ...

Like most CEOs, he prefers to give orders to loyal subordinates in a clear chain of command. He distrusts independent power, even in his own party.