Uninspired appointments are the symptom of a President who has simply run out of energy, says edward luttwak
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President Bush is tired. It was part of his original appeal that he is such a normal American, not an obsessive over-worker, willing enough to do his job and just as willing to go on vacation whenever possible, and notably more often than his recent predecessors. But too many things have happened to him of late, from unending war and inordinately destructive hurricanes that ravaged some of America's least civilized places, to the nasty little press leak scandal that has caused the indictment of Mr Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and the humiliating withdrawal of his candidate for the Supreme Court.
Only a tired President, no longer willing to seek out talent beyond his immediate circle of faithful associates, would have followed the elevation of one of his lawyers to Attorney
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| An American president who has had enough of power is condemned to serve out the balance of his four years |
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General by the attempt to place another on the Supreme Court, with no stellar accomplishments to justify the promotion.
Having won two presidential elections and fought two unending wars, President Bush has run out of energy. Instead of the bouncing enthusiasm of happier days, his subdued manner indicates a loss of interest in the presidency itself, a desire to go home and rest.
If he were a British prime minister, the House of Commons would sense his exhaustion inducing one his colleagues to claim the office, allowing him to retreat to the back benches, until the inevitable elevation to the House of Lords.
But an American president who has had enough of power and its travails has no honourable exit from the White House and is condemned to serve out the balance of his four years. Any grand plans not yet achieved must be quietly shelved, and no new policy initiatives of significance can be launched. That is not necessarily a bad thing given the American propensity to over-activism in all 
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