Joe Millionaire for President
Mr. Bush rolls out an economic plan that he says will help address joblessness, now at an eight-year high and growing, when in fact it's mainly a payday for those who collect dividend checks. Promising to speed the cleanup of corporate corruption, he accepts the resignation of Harvey Pitt, but two months-plus later Mr. Pitt is still on the job, working his will as the S.E.C. does some of its most crucial "reform" rule-making. Mr. Bush thumps as a hallmark of his education vision the No Child Left Behind Act, but his tight budget will leave states struggling to fulfill its alleged goals. Even Marvin Olasky, the Bush sycophant who wrote the book that inspired compassionate conservatism, said last month that while he awards the president an "A" for "setting the message" he gives him an "F" for his legislative follow-through.

But Mr. Olasky may not be the only one who is waking up to the ruse. The drop in Mr. Bush's poll numbers this week reminds us that anesthesia, no matter how well administered, eventually wears off. Affirmative action, judicial nominations, Enron and the rest are passionate issues for some, but war is a wake-up call for all. As the president keeps stamping his foot about Saddam Hussein, there is a dawning sensation that America is being held hostage by the administration idée fixe that is Iraq. It's a sword of Damocles hanging over our foreign policy, economy and national security alike.

The White House wants us to believe, as Dr. Frist reassured us last weekend, that North Korea is "an entirely, entirely different situation" from Iraq. Yes it is, not least because North Korea does not produce oil. But the two situations are now inseparable. Kim Jong Il may be crazy but he's not stupid. He bet the bank that Mr. Bush, for all his promises not to respond to nuclear blackmail, would do exactly that to avoid a distraction from Iraq. And so he called the president's bluff and will soon get his ransom. Mr. Bush's retreat all but invites other rogues to push us around, or worse, in this interregnum of vulnerability that his verbal bluster and tactical blundering has created.

Iraq's hammerlock on the economy is just as tight. We increasingly realize that no matter what Mr. Bush's tax-cutting plan, or any Democratic alternative, the economic issue du jour is not so much class warfare as warfare, period. No one believes the economy is going to expand as long as war clouds dampen the business environment. If the war drags on for months, recession could well follow.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/18/opinion/18RICH.html?pagewanted=all&position=top