Tuesday, June 24, 2008
41 down - 7 to go
Bush certainly seems AWOL these days. Don't believe he'll be missed by many including many conservatives for his insouciant destruction of the GOP brand. To his scorecard:
- Iraq - 36/month dead over the past 3 months (i use 21st of March through 20th of June). This is about the level I expect it to continue for the foreseeable future. Death toll has been low enough to keep Iraq from being the top campaign item. It's actually easy to tell the future of Iraq - something between Somalia & ex-Yugoslavia. There will be no helicopter evacuation from a faux embassy, neither will there be some S. Korean success story decades from now. Atlantic Monthly had several speculations on the future, but the accurate one was the Seinfeld scenario - a war about nothing. The status quo survived just fine - Mubarak's still in power. Syria is still ruled by thugs who meddle in Lebanon.
- Trade - overall a disappointing record.
- Deficit - can't care anymore.
