The change Bush believes in won’t be easily undone by his successor

IN Washington DC at the weekend, the Bush joke books piled high in the stores’ discount sections told their own story.

Lame ducks are to be pitied, not laughed at, it seems. The days when 7,000 gardaí, troops and secret service personnel had to be deployed in Co Clare to protect him are but memories. This presidency is over bar the bank bail-outs.

Instead, on the streets of America’s capital, in the bars, over coffee in Georgetown, the only topic of conversation is what’s being billed as the most important US election since Jack Kennedy beat Richard Nixon by 0.1% of the vote. And everyone is aware it could be just as close this November as it was in 1960.