I'm a great believer in the proposition that every citizen, even the most partisan, should greet a new President with an open mind and give him or her a fair chance to be a great President. But that principle doesn't apply in the same way to a second termer, and it doesn't apply at all to a second-termer who has refused to acknowledge that he made a single mistake during his term, who has never fired an underling, and whose primary campaign theme was Stay The Course.

If George W. Bush actually does dramatically change his stripes in a second term, I am prepared to notice that and adjust my stance accordingly. Until that point, my attitude toward the new President is combative. I want to use all fair political means to neuter his Presidency.

But I am not optimistic enough to think I will fully succeed. I expect our tax system to be rendered more economically unjust, and I don't expect to see it recover during my lifetime; I expect our nation's standing in the world to fall further, and for the world's citizens to more and more blame our arrogance on America and not just on Bush; I expect our courts to be packed with quiet, angry men in dark suits with slicked-back hair who will legislative into the law protections for power and moneyed interests that won't disappear in my lifetime; and I expect one more huge blunder that no one could possibly predict at this time, like Iraq in the first term.

There's only one good thing: I expect the next four years to be years of reaping the whirlwind for the wind Bush has sewn in the last four years, and there won't be any doubt about whose fault it is. That may make this outcome, in the long run, a good thing. That's just hard to see right now.