Coming Soon: More Of The Same

The New York Times presents George W. Bush in La La Land:

Mr. Bush offered no new initiatives, and on issue after issue said the solution was in policies he had previously set out. To address high gasoline prices, he said, the nation should build more refineries, a step he has been urging for more than four years.

To help pay the costs of helping people displaced by Hurricane Katrina and rebuilding the Gulf Coast, he cited budget-cutting proposals he first made at the beginning of the year, many of them ignored or rejected by Congress.

He called on Congress to reauthorize expiring provisions in the anti-terrorism law, known as the USA Patriot Act, saying that "terrorist threats won't expire" and that the government needs the powers the legislation provides to fight terrorism. Efforts to turn over more of the war-fighting burden in Iraq to Iraqi troops, he said, are showing "positive progress."

His remarks highlighted what his supporters say is one of his greatest strengths and what his detractors say is one of his worst weaknesses: his determination not to change his fundamental course as events swirl around him.

Even as he has committed the federal government to the expensive task of post-hurricane relief and reconstruction, he has insisted that the government can still meet his deficit-reduction targets, and in his news conference he made clear that the key to doing so would be to reduce spending along the lines he wants rather than by raising taxes.

"I'm still a conservative, proudly so, proudly so," Mr. Bush said in response to a question about whether he could still claim that identity after presiding over a rapid increase in the size and cost of the government.

Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue....