President Bush is trying to regain his footing and develop some policy momentum for his second term, and this is just another weight around his ankles.
For most voters, schools are the No. 1 issue,
At some point they'll have to be summoned to the table.
I think of 2002 as the last gasp of the old order. The first gasp of the new order might well be 2010.
It makes you wonder, when they have so many problems, why they would let this fester the way they have.
If you're betting your own money, you bet on Perry (to win re-election). But he can be beaten because there are reservations about him that run deep.
DeLay did what he had to do to remain a plausible candidate in November. But he's got a tremendous amount of work to do still. He goes forward into a meat grinder.
It's hard to catch lightning in a bottle twice. The fact that he wasn't able to build on that achievement (in 1996) is a comment on the uniqueness of that race and what he had to offer as a candidate.
The Republican governor and the Republican majority in the Legislature are unable to close that out. The fact they have failed to deal with public education, either education reforms or funding, has come home to roost.
He has some time, maybe six to nine months, to convince Americans we are on a clear path to a stable, democratic Iraq. If that remains unclear by next summer, the attacks by Democrats will become unrestrained and Republicans will be running for cover.