Dusty Springfield and the Bush Legacy

My analysis/predictions re the last years of the Bush era, published originally in The Business Timeswere posted today on antiwar.com and LewRockwell.com:

May 11, 2006
Bush's Slow Race
in the Last Lap
What will he do to save his legacy?
by Leon Hadar
Most of us are familiar with the saying: "Time flies when you're having fun." After all, five hours of flight turbulence feels much longer than five hours on a beach resort. In fact, scientists have demonstrated that patterns of activity in the brain tend to accelerate in response to positive emotional stimulation, and vice versa.
That perhaps explains why during the booming 1990s time seemed to have passed without us noticing it, and why, on the other hand, the next three years of the Bush administration will probably seem to drag and drag.
Indeed, the NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live recently featured a (make-believe) President George W. Bush sitting in the (make-believe) Oval Office and admitting to his (make-believe) vice president, Dick Cheney, that all he was hoping for was to be transported by a time machine to the last months of 2008 during which his term in office would end.
And who could blame him? With his approval rating in the polls down to the low 30s, President Bush and his aides are, to paraphrase Dusty Springfield, wishing and hoping and thinking and praying, planning and dreaming each day and night for just one tiny piece of good news that would help get the White House occupant and the Republicans into the arms of a not-so-loving public.Read More.

The Bottom Line: Bush's main goal now is not to help his Republican allies but to protect his "legacy" AKA War in Iraq and the March of Freedom in the Middle East. He believes that one day in the future historians will compare him to President Truman who was also very unpopular because of the Korea War and who is now considered by many (not by me) as Great President. So... Bush wants to ensure that Iraq would not be recalled as "Bush's War" by forcing his successors in office (and Congress) to embrace his agenda and continue his Middle East policies. He is doing that by "creating facts" like the U.S. military bases in Iraq. My guesss is that that exactly what would happen under either President Clinton or McCain.

On another issue. I have a feeling that some of the young kids reading my column are asking themselves: Who is Dusty Springfield? So as a preemptive action I'm posting here her pic (see above) and website as well as the lyrics of Wishing and Hoping.