They may have been the most disastrous dreamers, the most reckless gamblers, and the most vigorous imperial hucksters and grifters in our history.他们可能是最灾难性的梦想，最鲁莽赌徒，和最具活力的帝国hucksters和骗子在我们的历史。 Selling was卖出 their passion他们的热情 . 。 And they were classic American salesmen – if you’re talking about underwater land in Florida, or the Brooklyn Bridge, or three-card monte, or bizarre visions of和他们的经典美国推销员-如果你在谈论水下在佛罗里达州的土地，或布鲁克林大桥，或三卡蒙特，或奇怪的愿景 Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicles伊拉克的无人驾驶飞行器 armed with chemical and biological weaponry let loose over the US, or Saddam Hussein’s mushroom clouds携带化学和生物武器让松散的美国，或萨达姆侯赛因的蘑菇云 rising上升 over American cities, or a full-scale reordering of the Middle East to our taste, or simply eternal global dominance.在美国城市，或者一个全面的重新安排中东的味道，或只是永恒的全球主导地位。

When historians look back, it will be far clearer that the “commander in chief” of a “wartime” country and his top officials were focused, first and foremost, not on the shifting “central theaters” of the Global War on Terror, but on the theater that mattered most to them – the “home front,” where they spent inordinate amounts of time selling the American people a bill of goods.当历史学家回头看，这将是迄今为止明确地说， “总司令”的“战时”的国家和他的高级官员重点，首先，而不是把“中央电影院”的全球反恐战争，但关于战区最重要的是他们-的“大后方” ，他们将花费过多的时间出售美国人民的一项法案的货物。 Of his timing in ramping up a campaign to invade Iraq in September 2002, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card infamously他的时间安排在加大一项运动，入侵伊拉克在2002年9月，白宫办公厅主任安德鲁卡德infamously explained解释 : “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” ： “从营销的角度来看，您没有推出新产品，在8月。 ”

Indeed.确实。

From a White House where “从白宫的“ victory strategies胜利战略 ” meant purely for domestic consumption poured out, to the Pentagon where bevies of generals, admirals, and other high officers were constantly being mustered, not to lead armies but to “是指纯粹的国内消费涌出，五角大楼在bevies的将军，海军，和其他高级官员不断纠集，而不是领导的军队，而是 lead public opinion引导舆论 , their selling focus was total. ，他们的销售重点是总。 They were always releasing “new product.”他们总是释放“的新产品。 ”

And don’t forget their own set of soaring inside-the-Beltway fantasies.同时不要忘记自己的一套飞涨内的的休假幻想。 After all, if a salesman is going to sell you some defective product, it always helps if he can sell himself on it first.毕竟，如果业务员会卖给你一些有缺陷的产品，它总是帮助，如果他可以出售自己的第一次。 And on this score, they were world champs.并在此评分，他们是世界冠军。

Because events made it look so foolish, the phrase “shock and awe” that went with the initial attack on Iraq in March 2003 has now passed out of official language and (together with “mission accomplished”) into the annals of irony.由于事件看起来愚蠢，用“震慑”的去与最初的攻击伊拉克在2003年3月已超过了官方语言，并（与“使命完成” ）进入史册的讽刺。 Back then, though, as bombs and missiles blew up parts of Baghdad – to fabulous visual effect in that other “theater” of war, television – the phrase was constantly on official lips and in media reports everywhere.当时，虽然作为炸弹和导弹炸毁了巴格达的部分-以惊人的视觉效果，其他的“战区”的战争，电视-短语不断对官方的嘴唇，在世界各地媒体的报道。 It went hand-in-glove with another curious political phrase: regime change.它接着手在手套与另一个奇怪的政治片语：政权更替。

Given the supposed unique technological proficiency of the US military and its array of “precision” weapons, the warriors of Bushworld convinced themselves that a new era in military affairs had truly dawned.由于独特的技术支持能力的美军和其一系列的“精确”的武器，战士Bushworld深信自己一个新的时代，军事事务的真正到来了。 An enemy “regime” could now be taken out – quite literally and with surgical precision, in its bedrooms, conference rooms, and offices, thanks to those precision weapons delivered long-distance from ship or plane – without taking out a country.敌人“制度”现在可以取出-毫不夸张，并与手术精确度，在其卧室，会议室和办公室，感谢那些提供精确武器长途从船只或飞机-而不考虑了国家。 Poof! Poof ！ You only had to say the word and an oppressive regime would be, as it was termed, “decapitated.” Its people would then welcome with open arms relatively small numbers of American troops as liberators.你只说了两字和压迫制度将是，因为它被称为“砍头” 。及其人民欢迎然后将张开双臂相对较小数量的美国军队视为解放者。

It all sounded so good, and high tech, and relatively simple, and casualty averse, and clean as a whistle.这一切听起来那么好，和高科技，和相对简单，并避免人员伤亡，并作为一个干净的哨子。 Even better, once there had been such a demonstration, a guaranteed “更好的是，一旦出现了这样一个演示，保证“ cakewalk步态竞赛 ” – as, say, in Iraq – who would ever dare stand up to American power again? “ -因为，比如说，在伊拉克-谁将以往任何时候都不敢站出来，以美国的力量吗？ Not only would one hated enemy dictator be dispatched to the dustbin of history, but evildoers everywhere, fearing the Bush equivalent of the wrath of Khan, would be shock-and-awed into submission or quickly dispatched in their own right.不仅将一个独裁者痛恨的敌人派遣扫进历史的垃圾堆，但恶人各地，他们担心布什相当于愤怒的汗，将震惊和敬畏到提交或迅速派遣自己的权利。

In reality (ah, “reality” – what a nasty word!), the shock-and-awe attacks used on Iraq got在现实中（啊， “现实” -什么是讨厌的词！ ） ，休克和敬畏的攻击对伊拉克使用了 not a single leader没有任何一个领导者 of the Saddamist regime, not one of that在萨达姆政权，而不是说 pack包 of 52 cards (including of course the ace of spades, Saddam Hussein, found in his “spiderhole” so many months later). 52卡（当然包括王牌黑桃，萨达姆侯赛因，发现在他的“ spiderhole ”这么多个月后） 。 Iraqi civilians were the ones killed in that precise and shocking moment, while Iraqi society was set on the road to destruction, and the world was not awed.伊拉克平民被打死那些在这精确的和令人震惊的时刻，而伊拉克是社会的道路上的破坏，世界上没有敬畏。

Strangely enough, though, the phrase, once reversed, proved applicable to the Bush administration’s seven-year post-9/11 history.奇怪的是，尽管这句话，一旦逆转，证明适用于布什政府的7年后的历史。 They were, in a sense, the awe-and-shock administration.他们在某种意义上说，在敬畏和休克管理。 Initially, they were awed by the supposedly singular power of the American military to dominate and transform the planet; then, they were continually shocked and disbelieving when that same military, despite its massive destructive power, turned out to be incapable of doing so, or even of handling two ragtag insurgencies in two weakened countries, one of which, Afghanistan, was among the poorest and least technologically advanced on the planet.起初，他们敬畏理应由奇异力量，美国的军事统治和改造的星球，然后，他们不断地感到震惊和1848相同时，军事，尽管其庞大的破坏力，原来是不能这样做，或即使处理两个乌合之众组成的叛乱在两个削弱国家，其中之一，阿富汗，是最贫穷和最不先进的地球上。

The Theater of War该战区

In remarkably short order, historically speaking, the administration’s soaring imperial fantasies turned into planetary nightmares.在非常短的秩序，历史上说，布什政府的飙升帝国的幻想变成行星的恶梦。 After 9/11, of course, George W. and crew promised Americans the global equivalent – and Republicans the domestic equivalent – of a经过9 / 11 ，当然，乔治布什和机组人员答应美国的全球相当于-共和党和国内同等-一个 36,000 stock market 36000股票市场 and we know just where the stock market is today: only about 27,000 points short of that irreality.我们知道刚刚在股市今天是：只有约27000点短期的irreality 。

Once upon a time, they really did think that, via the US armed forces, or, as George W. Bush once so breathlessly曾几何时，他们确实认为，通过美国军队，或作为美国总统布什曾经这样闷热 put it把它 , “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known,” they could dominate the planet without significant help from allies or international institutions of any sort.说， “最大的力量为人类的解放世界上迄今所知， ”他们可以主宰这个星球没有重大的帮助盟国或国际机构的任何一种。 Who else had a shot at it?还有谁开枪了吗？ In the post-Soviet world, who but a leadership backed by the full force of the US military could possibly be a contender for the leading role in this epic movie?在苏联解体后的世界，谁的领导，但支持的全部力量，美军有可能成为竞争者的主导作用，这史诗电影吗？ Who else could even turn out for a casting call?还有谁甚至可以成为一个铸造电话吗？ Impoverished Russia?俄罗斯贫困？ China, still rebuilding its military and back then considered to have a host of potential problems?中国，仍然重建其军队和当时认为有一系列潜在的问题？ A bunch of terrorists?阿一群恐怖分子？ I mean… come on!我的意思是...来吧！

As they saw it, the situation was pretty basic.正如他们认为，这种情况基本相当。 In fact, it gave the phrase “power politics” real meaning.事实上，它给的“强权政治”真正的意义。 After all, they had in their hands the reins attached to the sole superpower on this small orb.毕竟，他们已经在他们手中的缰绳重视唯一的超级大国在这个小球。 And wasn’t everyone – at least, everyone they cared to listen to, at least Charles Krauthammer and the editorial page of the Washington Post – saying no less?是不是每个人-至少，每个人都关心他们听，至少在查尔斯克劳特哈默和社论版华盛顿邮报-不说？

I mean, what else would you do, if you suddenly, almost miraculously (after an election improbably settled by the Supreme Court), found yourself in sole command of the globe’s only “hyperpower,” the only sheriff on planet Earth, the New Rome.我的意思是，什么你会做，如果你突然，几乎奇迹般地（选举后定居improbably由最高法院） ，发现自己在指挥的唯一全球唯一的“超强” ，唯一的治安官地球上的新罗马。 To make matters more delicious, in terms of getting just what you wanted, those hands were on those reins为了使问题变得更加美味，在获得正是您想要的，那些双手被那些缰绳 right after后 “the Pearl Harbor of the twenty-first century,” when Americans were shocked and awed and terrified enough that anything-goes seemed a reasonable response? “珍珠港的二十一世纪， ”当美国人感到震惊和敬畏和恐惧，任何足够的，不用似乎是合理的回应？

It might have gone to anyone’s head in imperial Washington at that moment, but it went to their heads in such a striking way.这可能已经给任何人的头部在华盛顿帝国在那一刻，但到他们在这样一个引人注目的方式。 After all, theirs was a plan – labeled in 2002 the毕竟，他们是一个计划-在2 002年标记的 Bush Doctrine布什主义 – of global domination conceptually so un-American that, in my childhood, the only place you would have heard it was in the mouths of the most evil, snickering imperial Japanese, Nazi, or Soviet on-screen villains. -对全球统治的概念，使非美国，在我的童年，唯一的地方你会听到有人在嘴巴的最邪恶， s nickering日本帝国，纳粹或苏联屏幕上的坏人。 And yet, in their moment of moments, it just rolled right out of their heads and off their tongues – and they were proud of it.然而，在他们的时刻时刻，它只是推出了正确的元首和关闭他们的母语-他们感到自豪。

Here’sa question for 2009 you don’t have to answer: What should the former “new Rome” be called now?以下为2009年的问题你没有回答：应具有什么样的前“新罗马”的要求呢？ That will, of course, be someone else’s problem.这当然会是别人的问题。

The Cast of Characters演员的字符

And what a debacle the Bush Doctrine proved to be.和什么是失败的布什主义证明。 What a legacy the legacy president and his pals are leaving behind.什么遗留下来的遗产总统和他的朋友都留下。 A wrecked economy, deflated global stock markets, collapsing banks and financial institutions, soaring unemployment, a smashed Republican Party, a bloated Pentagon overseeing a strained, overstretched military, mired in an阿破坏经济，瘪全球股市崩溃，银行和金融机构，失业率高涨，一个捣破共和党，一个臃肿的五角大楼监督紧张，捉襟见肘的军事，陷入了 incoherent set不连贯的一套 of still-expanding wars gone sour, a network of secret prisons, as well as Guantanamo, that “jewel in the crown” of Bush’s Bermuda Triangle of injustice, and all the grim practices that went with those offshore prisons, including widespread torture and abuse, kidnapping, assassination, and the disappearing of prisoners (once associated only with South America dictatorships and military juntas).仍在扩大战争了酸，网络的秘密监狱，以及关塔那摩说， “宝石皇冠”布什的百慕大三角的不公正，以及所有严峻的做法，去与那些海外的监狱，其中包括广泛的酷刑和性虐待，绑架，暗杀，和消失的囚犯（一次只与南美洲独裁和军事juntas ） 。

They headed a government that couldn’t shoot straight or plan ahead or do anything halfway effectively, an administration that emphasized “defense” – or “homeland security” as it came to be called in their years – above all else; yet they were always readying themselves for the last battle, and so were caught utterly, embarrassingly unready for 19 terrorists with box-cutters, a hurricane named Katrina, and an arcane set of Wall Street derivatives heading south.他们领导的一个政府，不能连续拍摄或提前计划或做任何事中途有效的管理，强调“防御” -或“国土安全” ，因为它后来被称为其年-高于一切，但他们总是准备好自己的最后战役，所以完全被捕，尴尬unready 19恐怖分子盒刀，一个名为卡特里娜飓风，以及神秘的华尔街衍生物向南。

As the supposed party of small government, they succeeded mainly in strangling civilian services,正如党的支持小政府，他们成功主要是在扼杀平民服务， privatizing government operations政府业务民营化 into the hands of crony corporations, and bulking up state power in a massive way – making an already vast intelligence apparatus落入裙带企业，膨胀了国家权力大规模地-已经作出了巨大的情报机构 yet larger但更大的 and more labyrinthine, expanding spying and surveillance of every kind, raising secrecy to a first principle, establishing a new多迷路，扩大侦察和监视的每一种，提高保密为第一原则，建立一个新的 US military command美国军事指挥部 for North America, endorsing a在北美，赞同 massive Pentagon buildup五角大楼大规模集结 , establishing a second Defense Department labeled the Department of Homeland Security with its own mini-homeland-security-industrial complex, evading checks and powers in the Constitution whenever possible, and claiming new powers for a “ ，建立了第二个标记国防部国土安全部自己的迷你国土安全，工业园区，逃避检查和权力，在宪法中只要有可能，并声称新的权力，为“ unitary executive统一执行 ” commander-in-chief presidency. “总司令主席。

No summary can quite do justice to what the administration “accomplished” in these years.没有总结可以很公正的话管理“成就”在这些年来。 If there was, however, a single quote from the world of George W. Bush that caught the deepest nature of the president and his core followers, it was如果有，不过，单引号从世界的美国总统布什认为陷入最深切的性质，总统和他的追随者的核心，这是 offered提供 by an “unnamed administration official” – often assumed to be Karl Rove – to journalist Ron Suskind back in October 2004:一个“不具名政府官员” -通常被假定为罗夫-向记者罗恩聚斯金德早在2 0 04年1 0月：

“He] said that guys like me were ‘in what we call the reality-based community,’ which he defined as people who ‘believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. “他]说，像我这样的球员是'在我们所说的现实为基础的社会，他定义为人们谁是认为，解决办法摆脱你的明智的研究辨别现实。 '我点点头，喃喃地说一些有关原则和启示经验主义。 He cut me off.他将我赶走。 ‘That’s not the way the world really works anymore,’ he continued. '这不是让这个世界真正的作品了， '他继续说。 ‘We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. '我们现在一个帝国，当我们采取行动，我们创造我们自己的现实。 And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out.而你研究的现实-明智的，因为你会-我们会再次采取行动，创造其他新的现实，你也可以研究，这事将如何理清。 We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’”我们正在历史的参与者...和你，你们大家，将留给刚刚研究我们做什么。 “

“We create our own reality. “我们创造我们自己的现实。 … We’re history’s actors.” ...我们有历史的行动者。 “

It must for years have seemed that way, and everything about the lives they lived only reinforced that impression.它必须多年来一直这样看来，一切的生活，他们只能住加强这种印象。 After all, the president himself, as so many wrote, lived in a literal bubble world.毕竟，总统本人，因为这么多写道，住在一个字面泡沫的世界。 Those who met him were carefully vetted; audiences were screened so that no one who didn’t fawn over him got near him; and when he这些谁见过了认真审核;观众进行了筛选，使任何人谁不巴结他得到了他身边，当他 traveled旅行 through foreign cities, they were cleared of life, turned into the equivalent of Potemkin villages, while he and his many armored cars and Blackhawk helicopters, his huge contingent of Secret Service agents and White House aides, his sniffer dogs and military sharpshooters, his chefs and who knows what else passed through.通过外国城市，他们被清除的生活，变成了相当于波村庄，而他和他的许多装甲车和黑鹰直升机，其巨大的特遣队的特工和白宫助手，他的嗅探犬和军事神枪手，他的厨师谁知道什么通过。

Of course, the president had been in a close race with the reality principle (which, in his case, was the principle of failure) all his life – and whenever reality nipped at his heels, his father’s boys stepped in and whisked him off stage.当然，布什总统一直在密切的种族的现实原则（其中，在他的案件，原则上是失败的）所有他的生命-只要现实扼杀在他的高跟鞋，他父亲的男孩和加强在护送他起飞阶段。 He got by at his prep school, Andover, and then at Yale, a他得到了他的预备学校，安多弗，然后在耶鲁大学，一个 C-level legacy student C级学生的遗产 and, appropriately enough when it came to sports, a ，并适当足够的时候，体育，一个 cheerleader啦啦队长 and, at Yale, a party animal as well as the ，并在耶鲁大学，当事人动物以及 president总统 of the hardest-drinking fraternity on campus.最困难的饮水友爱的校园。 He was there in the first place only because of who he wasn’t (or rather who his relations were).他在那里摆在首位不仅是因为他是谁没有（或更确切地说谁的关系） 。

Faced with the crises of the Vietnam era, he joined the Texas Air National Guard and more or less面对危机，越战时期，他加入了得克萨斯州空军国民警卫队和或多或少 went missing失踪 in action.在行动中。 Faced with life, he became a面对生活，他成为了 drunk喝醉酒 . 。 Faced with business, he failed repeatedly and yet, thanks to his dad’s friends, became a multi-millionaire in the process.面对企业，他一再失败，但是，由于他父亲的朋友，成为一个多百万富翁的过程中。 He was supported, cosseted, encouraged, and finally – to use an omnipresent word of our moment –他的支持，娇生惯养，鼓励，并最终-利用一个无所不在的字我们的时刻- bailed out保释外出 . 。 The first MBA president was a business bust.第一MBA总统是一个企业破产。 A certain well-honed, homey congeniality got him to the governorship and then to the presidency of the United States without real accomplishments.某良好的磨练，家和蔼了他的州长，然后主席对美国没有真正的成就。 If there ever was a case for not voting for the guy you’d most like to “have a beer with,” this was it.如果有任何一个案件没有投票的人您最希望以“有啤酒， ”这是它。

On that pile of rubble at Ground Zero on Sept. 14, 2001, with a在这一堆废墟在地面零9月14日， 2001年，与 bullhorn扩音器 in his hands and various rescuers shouting, “USA!在他的手里和各种救援人员高喊“美国！ USA!” he genuinely found his “calling” as the country’s cheerleader in chief (as he had evidently found his religious calling earlier in life).美国！ “他真正找到了自己” ，呼吁“作为国家的啦啦队长在长（因为他显然找到了自己先前的宗教要求的生活） 。 He not only took the job seriously, he visibly loved it.他不仅在工作认真，他明显地喜欢上了它。 He took a childlike pleasure in being in the “theater” of war.他接受了孩子正在高兴地在“战区”的战争。 He was thrilled when some of the soldiers who captured Saddam Hussein in that “spiderhole” later他兴奋时，一些士兵谁抓获萨达姆说， “ spiderhole ”后 presented him他提出 with the dictator’s pistol.与独裁者的手枪。 (”‘He really liked showing it off,’ says a … visitor to the White House who has seen the gun. ‘He was really proud of it.’”) He was similarly thrilled, on a trip to Baghdad in 2007, to （ “他真的很喜欢它显示了， '说...游客到白宫谁看到了枪。 '他真的感到自豪。 ” ） ，他也同样激动，在前往巴格达在2007年，以 meet遇见 the American pilot “whose plane’s missiles killed Iraq’s al-Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi” and “returned to Washington in a buoyant mood.”美国飞行员“ ，其飞机的导弹炸死伊拉克的基地组织领导人扎卡维”和“返回华盛顿的浮力情绪。 ”

While transforming himself into the national cheerleader in chief, he even虽然自己转化纳入国家啦啦队的首席，他甚至 kept保持 “his own personal scorecard for the war” in a desk drawer in the Oval Office – photos with brief biographies and personality sketches of leading al-Qaeda figures, whose faces could be satisfyingly crossed out when killed or captured. “他个人记分卡的战争”在一个抽屉在白宫椭圆形办公室-照片与简短的传记和人格素描领导盖达组织的数字，其面临的可能是s atisfyingly划掉时，击毙或抓获。 He clearly adored it when he got to dress up, whether in a他清楚地崇拜它当他穿衣服了，无论是在 flight suit飞行服 landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier in May 2003, or in front of hoo-aahing crowds of soldiers wearing a specially tailored military-style jacket with “George W. Bush, Commander In Chief”降落在甲板上的航空母舰于2003年5月，或在前面的豪- aahing人群的士兵穿着专门的军事风格的外套与“乔治布什总司令” hand-stitched手工缝制 across the heart.整个心脏。 As earlier in life, he was supported (Karl Rove), enabled (Condoleezza Rice), cosseted (various officials), and so became “the decider,” a willing figurehead (as he had been, for instance, when he was an “owner” of the Texas Rangers), manipulated by his如前所述在生活中，他是支持（罗夫） ，启用（康多莉扎赖斯） ，娇生惯养（各种官员） ，因此成为“号， ”一个愿意有名无实（因为他已经举例来说，当他是一个“业主“ ，德克萨斯骑警队） ，由他操纵 co-president Dick Cheney共同总统切尼 . 。 In these surroundings, he was able to take war play to an imperial level.在这种环境中，他能够采取战争发挥了帝国主义的水平。 In the end, however, this act of his life, too, could lead nowhere but to failure.最后，然而，这种行为他的生命，也可能会导致没有，但要失败的。

As it happened, reality possessed its own set of shock-and-awe weaponry.事实上，现实拥有自己的一套震惊和敬畏的武器。 Above all, reality was unimpressed with history’s self-proclaimed “actors,” working so hard on the global stage to create their own reality.总之，现实与历史不为所动的自封的“演员” ，如此艰苦的工作在全球舞台上建立自己的现实。 When it came to who really owned what, it turned out that reality owned the works and that possession was indeed nine-tenths of one law that even George Bush’s handlers and his fervent neocon followers couldn’t suspend.当它来谁真正拥有什么，它原来是国有现实的作品，并持有确实是十分之九的一项法律，即使是布什的处理和他的热切新保守主义的追随者不能中止。

Exit Stage Right退出阶段的权利

The results were sadly predictable.结果不幸的可预测性。 The bubble world of George W. Bush was bound to be burst.泡沫世界的美国总统布什一定会破裂。 Based on fantasies, false promises, lies, and bait-and-switch tactics, it was destined for foreclosure.基于幻想，虚假的承诺，谎言，和鱼饵和切换策略，它的目的地是赎回。 At home and abroad, after all, it had been created using the equivalent of subprime mortgages, and the result, unsurprisingly, was a dismally subprime administration.在国内和国外，毕竟它创造了用相当于优抵押贷款，结果勿庸置疑，是一个令人沮丧优管理。

Now, of course, the bill collector is at the door and the property – the USA – is worth a good deal less than on Nov. 4, 2000.当然，现在该法案是收藏家在门口和财产-美国-是值得一个良好的交易不到11月4日， 2 0 00年。 George W. Bush is a discredited president; his乔治布什是一个扫地总统，他的 job approval ratings就业率 could hardly be lower; his bubble world gone bust.难以降低;他的世界了泡沫破灭。

Nonetheless, let’s remember one other theme of his previous life.然而，让我们记住另外一个主题，他以前的生活。 Whatever his failures, Bush always walked away from disastrous dealings enriched, while others were left holding the bag.无论他的失败，布什始终离开交往丰富了灾难性的，而其他人则留下持有袋。 Don’t imagine for a second that the equivalent isn’t about to repeat itself.不要想象一个第二，相当于是不会重演。 He will leave a country functionally under the gun of foreclosure, a world他将离开一个国家职能的枪下的赎回，世界 far more aflame更为火海 and dangerous than the one he faced on entering the Oval Office.和危险比他面临进入白宫椭圆形办公室。 But he won’t suffer.但是，他不会受到影响。

He will have his他将他的 new house新房子 in Dallas (not to speak of the “ranch” in Crawford) and his more than $200 million presidential “在达拉斯（不说话的“牧场”在克劳福德农场）和他的2亿多美元总统“ library图书馆 ” and “freedom institute” at Southern Methodist University; and then there’s always that 20 percent of America – they know who they are – who think his presidency was the greatest thing since sliced bread. “与”自由研究所“在南方卫理公会大学，然后永远有百分之二十的美国-他们知道他们是谁-谁认为他担任主席的最棒的事，因为土司。 Believe me, 20 percent of America is more than enough to pony up spectacular sums, once Bush takes to the talk circuit.请相信我，百分之二十的美国是绰绰有余从腰包里掏出壮观的款项，一旦布什的通话电路。 As the president himself正如总统本人 put it把它 enthusiastically,”‘I’ll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol’ coffers.’ With assets that have been estimated as high as nearly $21 million, Mr. Bush added, ‘I don’t know what my dad gets – it’s more than 50-75′ thousand dollars a speech, and ‘Clinton’s making a lot of money.’”热情， “我会给一些讲话，只是为了补充醇'国库。资产已估计高达近2100万美元，布什先生说， '我不知道我的爸爸得到-这氏超过50-75 '几千美元的讲话，和'克林顿总统作出了很多钱。 “

This is how a legacy-student-turned-president fails upward.这是怎样的遗产学生出身的总统没有上升。 Every disaster leaves him better off.每一个灾难留下他更好地赶走。

The same can’t be said for the country or the world, saddled with his “legacy.”同样不能说的国家或世界，背负着他的“遗产” 。

Still, his administration has been foreclosed.尽管如此，他的政府已经排除。 Perhaps there’s ignominy in that.也许有这个耻辱。 Now, the rest of us need to get out the brooms and start sweeping the stables.现在，我们其余的需要得到了扫帚，开始清扫马厩。

Copyright 2008版权所有2008年 Tom Engelhardt汤姆恩格尔哈特