A second chance for Bush

With his address to the nation tonight from New Orleans, President Bush is trying to resucitate his fading second term, even as he acknwledges how incapable he has become.

Slate has excellent analysis about his speech and that Bush used it as a Second Second Inaugral.

Second terms usually start on the steps of the Capitol. George Bush hopes that his starts in Jackson Square. Before the storm, his second four years had been defined by impotency. The war he started in Iraq became even bloodier and looked more hopeless. Cindy Sheehan appeared to be working harder than he was. Gas prices jumped and he admitted there was little he could do to help. He had to install John Bolton in the United Nations after the senators who wouldn't confirm him had gone home for the summer. His plan for revamping Social Security fell flat in the turf almost right out of the gate.

Bush proposed Gulf Opportunity Zones, and he said the federal government would pay for almost all of the rebuilding and cleanup costs for Hurricane Katrina. Of course, much of the federal money will go to corporations run by Bush crony donors, without paying prevailing wages and without bids. If Iraq is the albatross around Bush's neck, the effects of Katrina on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will be Bush's cement shoes.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.