Mr. Bush has set the stage for a political realignment
This president deserves a lot of credit for the political legacy he'll leave to his fellow Republicans. Among other things, Mr. Bush has laid the groundwork for the GOP to make big gains among black Americans:
Bush political strategist Matthew Dowd says that as early as 2006, Republican Senate and House candidates could win a quarter of the African American vote. The long-term goals, he said, are even more ambitious.
That would be a dramatic rise from the 11% of the national black electorate that went for Bush last year — a projection that even some of the most enthusiastic Republicans, such as former Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, caution could be overly optimistic.
Yet even a modest shift in the voting patterns of the minority group traditionally the most loyal to Democrats could transform the dynamics of American politics, giving Republicans an edge for decades.