There is no denying that the country is divided on the subject of the administration of George W. Bush.

I wonder what a prudent politician must do to deal with such a condition, on the presumption that one does so because one is at least 1% devoted to the proposition that I represent, to the world, the entirety of the American population. If all you are concerned about is achieving and holding office for as long as possible, presumably for other goals to be sought, attainable only as the result of being in office, the strategy is simple. You must only achieve one vote more than required than the other guy.

George W. Bush is clearly content to serve only that part of the electorate that is sufficiently satisfied with his performance to vote in favor of keeping him to continue with it. His objective is simpler still than stated above. He must only gain, if needed, the additional votes necessary to keep him in office.

A president of the United States unconcerned about the significant opposition of his people — by what measure we call it "significant" is beyond my sense of it at the moment, but I am not in the position of being concerned about the size of the opposition — is as president too sure of himself to deserve to be president. As a practitioner of the black arts of psychiatry intimated to me recently, he wishes Bush were more neurotic.

Long since, President Bush has proven himself impervious to nay-saying. The likeliest reason is that he never seeks it, and, by extension, it is never brought to his attention (at least not at his behest).

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