Even on Iraq, Bush clearly has an eye on the clock. While he no longer harbours hope of winning the war by January 20, 2009, he wants to use his time in office to stabilise the country, draw down some forces and leave his successor with a less volatile situation that would dampen domestic demands to pull out completely. If he can do that, he told television anchors during an off-the-record lunch this month, he thinks even Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, would continue his policy.

The goal, as national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley told the Council on Foreign Relations recently, is that “a new president who comes in in January 2009, whoever he or she may be, will look at it and say, ‘I’m persuaded that we have long-term interests here. It’s important we get it right.’ And so that a new president coming in doesn’t have a first crisis about ‘let’s pull the troops out of Iraq.’”

Bush has even quietly sent advice through intermediaries to Clinton and other Democratic candidates, urging them to be careful in their campaign rhetoric so they do not limit their options should they win, according to a new book, The Evangelical President, by Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner.

Bush is also rushing to institutionalise some of the controversial tactics he has employed in the battle with terrorists so that they will outlast his presidency. That was a major reason he agreed to put his National Security Agency’s warrant-less surveillance program under the jurisdiction of a secret intelligence court, aides said. And that is why he has pushed to find a way to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and find other ways of handling suspected terrorists, although officials increasingly doubt they will be able to do so.

... contd.