Bush's Final Year

"Mr. Bush named Barry Jackson in September to replace Mr. Rove, the 'architect' of Mr. Bush's electoral successes, and his understated style is credited with rallying Capitol Hill Republicans to wins on Iraq, spending and national health insurance.

"While friends and colleagues of Mr. Rove use words like 'flamboyant,' 'gregarious' and 'flashy' to describe him, they portray his former deputy, Mr. Jackson, as 'a man of few words' who is the right fit for a president now reliant on Republican legislators sticking with him."

The Year of Climate Change?

Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post that "Bush's views [on climate change] have evolved. He has found the science increasingly persuasive and believes more needs to be done, especially after a set of secret briefings last winter. . . .

"The coming year offers a final test of whether Bush is willing to move beyond the policies of the past seven years and embrace more aggressive measures, including a mandatory limit on carbon emissions with pollution credits that can be bought and sold -- a system known as cap-and-trade. . . .

"Bush's attention comes at a time when he and top advisers feel better about his presidency, confident they have turned a corner after two years of political setbacks and can now focus on reformulating his legacy. Heading into his final year, Bush has turned to big, bracing challenges abroad, most notably finding Middle East peace and forging a consensus on climate change. If global warming turns out to be a defining issue of this generation, advisers said, Bush does not want to be remembered as a roadblock."

Expansive Ambitions Abroad

Even as his domestic vision dims, Bush's international ambitions are getting more expansive.

Howard LaFranchi writes in the Christian Science Monitor: "Air Force One will be busy crossing oceans as the homebody president shifts to a boots-on approach to making his mark on the world.

"Bush will launch into this new global mode early in January, when he will make a seven-country, week-long tour of the Middle East. Aside from visiting Israel -- for the first time as president -- and the Palestinian territories, he'll make stops in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.

"Then in February, Bush heads to sub-Saharan Africa, where he will highlight his administration's role in the global fight against AIDS and in focusing foreign assistance and development funds on the most efficient, corruption-fighting democracies. After two international summits -- NATO in Bucharest, Romania, in April, and the Group of Eight economic summit in Japan in July -- Bush will attend the Beijing Summer Olympics in August.

"In some respects, Bush is following a typical pattern among recent presidents. Finding themselves increasingly irrelevant domestically as eyes turn to who might be the next White House occupant, presidents tend to turn to foreign policy -- and foreign travel -- to put the finishing touches on their legacies.

"But Bush, as much the lame duck at home as any two-term president on his final lap, faces a pattern of dislike abroad, both of himself and of his foreign policy, as he undertakes a year of travel."

Pakistan Watch

Indeed, as recent history in Pakistan shows, Bush's intervention on the international scene can generally be counted on to make things worse.