Bush aims high, faces more foes | csmonitor.comWASHINGTON – Lest there was any doubt, events of the past week have reinforced the image of a president heading into a new term with all the markings of a high-wire act.
President Bush has carved out a second-term domestic agenda as ambitious as any - beginning with fundamental change to the $500 billion-a-year Social Security program - while acknowledging that the deep challenges in Iraq will continue long after the Jan. 30 elections there. Even before an insurgent attack on US forces in Mosul Dec. 21 killed at least 24 people, Bush had adopted a more sober tone in assessing mixed progress toward a stable, democratic Iraq.
A majority of the American public - 56 percent - now says the Iraq war was not worth fighting, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, and Bush's overall job-approval rating hangs just below 50 percent in several polls, right where it was on the eve of his reelection. The president is now playing for the history books, not a third term, while the Congress he needs to carry through his reforms has, as always, reelection in mind. In growing numbers, congressional Republicans are raising questions, if not outright dissent, about Bush's plans at home and abroad.
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