Well, Kathryn, I’ll offer two:
(1) Some damage control on the illegal-immigration proposal. The White
House heard loud and clear from the conservative base — including, of
course, us — on that
one. Somebody there must have crunched the numbers. (I.e. votes to be
gained by POTUS shining Vicente Fox’s shoes on the White House lawn vs.
votes to be lost by abolishing the borders of the U.S.A.) From what we know
of GWB, I doubt anything substantive in the proposal will change, but look
for lots of sugar coating. Phrase to listen for: “nation of immigrants.”
(2) Signs that we might get some relief from the gross fiscal
irresponsibility of the past 3 years. (There is a fine editorial in today’s
Wall Street Journal on this — you need a subscription, though.) In the
first place, the President has enough items in inventory to give him
bragging rights therough the campaign season — education bill, Medicare
bill, etc. And second, we must surely be at the point by now that, if
things go on like this, White House economic advisers will be hurling
themselves from the observation deck of the Washington Monument, a thing the
administration would probably like to avoid. Phrase to listen for:
“budgetary constraints.”