Bush In The Home Stretch

It has to be a pretty strange feeling when a President has spent the last eight years in The White House and is in the final six months of his term. By that point, most of the attention is on the election of the next President. The sitting President can't accomplish all that much, and is doing the political equivalent of football's taking a knee to run out the clock. Monday President Bush left for his farewell trip to Europe. Yesterday Bush and some of our European allies, threatened tougher sanctions against Iran if they do not give up on their nuclear weapons ambitions. President Bush said; "A group of countries can send a clear message to the Iranians, and that is: we're going to continue to isolate you, we'll continue to work on sanctions, we'll find new sanctions if need be if you continue to deny the just demands of a free world." I agree with the fact that we must do everything in our power to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. I wonder how effective President Bush can be with regard to Iran now that he is essentially a "lame duck". The Iranians know that we will have a new President soon, and if that is Obama, perhaps they can continue to pursue their nuclear program. It's not only Presidents that feel strange near the end of a term. I have always had that uneasy, yet excited feeling of change as well. Many of us mark time by who was in the White House. Thinking back on the last eight years, I am in awe of just how much has changed in that time. Nothing illustrates this feeling more than 9/11. So significant was this event, that we have actually placed a bookmark in history. There is the pre 9/11 era, and the post 9/11 era today. Pretty powerful when you stop to think.