Unlike his predecessor, today's newly elected president will not have a foundation of good stewardship to build on, but eight years in which the seed corn has been eaten. He may have to guide the nation into and through real war, before the military is properly prepared. He may have to endure a recession and the anger of a public that now believes that prosperity grows without pause. This, of course, will not be easy, as the fact that all the parties are at the beginning would suggest.
Winning the presidency is not the end of a long road, it is the beginning. It is not the end of work, a relief, but the beginning of work, a burden. It is not a triumph, as new presidents sometimes believe, but a challenge. The triumph, if it comes at all, comes only with the judgement of history, and it is to the judgement of history that, if he is elected, George W. Bush should devote himself, for his sake and ours.
Mr. Helprin is a novelist, a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute. This will be his final weekly column.
How prophetic!