True to form, President George Bush announced his second term in office with all the braggadocio of the natural-born winner, telling his supporters in Washington: “I earned capital in political campaign and I intend to spend it.” No qualifications, no reservations, no self-doubt: Bush was adamant that he had earned the right to follow his own star and would not be deflected by all the naysayers.
The resulting movement to the right will have a profound effect on US domestic life, but in other spheres the Bush philosophy affects all of us. Not only is the US the world’s only superpower but its way of doing things is seemingly unstoppable, with no system of checks and balances. Judging by the way Bush and his vice-president Dick Cheney have approached their new term in office, they intend to pursue US foreign policy with the same vigour and ebullience that marked their efforts in the world that emerged after the September 11 attacks. A State Department source put the new mood in context when he told the Sunday Herald: “Like it or not, the rest of the world will just have to recognise that the President is here for the next four years and they’d better get used to it.”
http://www.sundayherald.com/45845