And, as reality sets in...

I recall a conversation that Ryan and I had way back in 2000. He knew I had voted for Gore, and he wanted to gloat at the Bush win. My response was that we now had four years (it ended up being six) to see the Republican agenda played out through a conservative White House, a GOP-controlled Congress, and a (marginally) conservative Supreme Court.

In the past eight years, we have gained a new (and Catholic!) Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (a GREAT pick by Bush); an executive branch of Government that has very nearly DOUBLED in size; a new education plan that has become a catch-phrase for wasted tax dollars; a global war where we are committed on two fronts, in two regions; a new Fed Chairman that NO ONE seems to have the slightest confidence in (especially when he publicly endorses OBAMA!); a financial bail-out plan that will further increase the size and scope of government control of private banking; NO discernible progress made in making the US less dependant on foreign oil imports; a really impressive new Sec Def that understands that there is more to the job than press conferences and time in the lime-light; a NEW and IMPROVED military that is more than anything Rummy could have hoped for in the 5 years he was Sec Def...

The list is long, but not terribly distinguished. I am the first to say that no further terror attacks have happened since 9/11 in the US, and we are probably a safer, stronger, and more secure nation than we were in 1999 (this is certainly true of our military!)... but any gains Bush might have made in safety and security have been squandered (in terms of his legacy) in the questions that are STILL surrounding the choices he made in his Cabinet picks.

My point is that the GOP WASTED an opportunity to promote ITS agenda through programs, legislation and in-your-face facts that SHOULD have been spewing out of the Capitol and White House from 2001 to 2007... but never really did. That opportunity is now gone for the foreseeable future.

So, IF Obama wins in November... we will have four years of a Democratic White House, and at least two more years of a Democrat-controlled Congress, and (very probably) a liberal majority on the bench of the Supreme Court. That's six years of legislation and policy from the far left-leaning DNC.

Undoubtedly, Ryan's only hope is that the Dems are as INCAPABLE of actually getting anything done as the GOP has been since 1998!