Or maybe Bush is just giving us what we want.

All elections are about power, and this one is no different.
Despite 24/7 cable news, relentless blogging and a king’s ransom in media buys pushing the storyline that this election is historic, it is still about Republican versus Democrat; conservative versus liberal; right versus left.
But there is something more fundamental going on this time.
As we have just shown you, during the past seven years President Bush and Vice President Cheney have systematically and purposefully expanded the power of the presidency. They saw—and continue to see—a dramatically strengthened executive branch as the key to confronting the new challenges of the 21st century.
From 9/11 to the implosion of the financial markets, the president’s gut response to crisis has been to concentrate power in the White House. Only an administration that believes it alone knows best could propose a $700 billion no-strings-attached bank bailout—and then attack Congressional critics as endangering the savings of ordinary Americans.
Echoes of a president who six years ago declared that you are either with us or against us. Turns out, he wasn’t just talking about the terrorists.
Congress could have pushed back. But from the failure to declare war before armies were committed to battle, to allowing massive off-budget spending, to accepting unprecedented signing statements—and much in between—both Republicans and Democrats have played poor defense to the White House’s aggressive offense.
And the courts have been essentially missing in action, except for a few attempts to curtail abuses of fundamental constitutional rights, and aging judges’ efforts to outlast Bush so someone else could nominate their successors.
As a result, not since FDR first took office has the balance among the three constitutionally co-equal branches of government been more out of whack.
That leaves the people.
Polls consistently say that most Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, while President Bush’s approval ratings hover at historic lows. But being unpopular only seems to convince this President that he really is right.
Maybe the country actually wants an imperial presidency. Maybe voters are tired of committee hearings and Senatorial privilege, of partisan debate and earmarked budgets.
Maybe, like Rome centuries ago, the country prefers to invest its leader with unbridled power if he promises to keep the barbarians from the gates—whether those barbarians are Islamic fundamentalists or greedy bankers—and to retire when his term expires.
The question won’t be put so starkly to the voters, but it is essentially the underlying issue on the ballot in November: What kind of country do you want?