Here are my fears:

• Bush withdraws troops summer of next year in vain hopes of a November Surprise.
  
• Momentum carries the election, and the Democrats are back in power.
  
• Iraq and/or Iran go south in a big way.
  
• Republicans play the blame card and point fingers at the Democrats who are still unpacking into their new offices.
  
• The public buys this load of horse offal.

I believe P. T. Barnum once said, "No one ever lost money betting on the foolishness of the American public."

My last fear is that the voting populace will have too short a memory to remember DeLay, Abramhoff, Libby, et. al. The president is only a figurehead. He's a lame duck.

• If another Republican replaces him, the puppeteers will still be in place, and the show will still remain the same.
• If a Democrat wins, the puppeteers will still be in place, and the show will change to that of ideological insurgency, of scorched Earth and political suicide bombers such as Coulter.

Either way, they'll still be there, still be blindly convinced that moral, theological and social conservatism is the One True Way.

Either way, this country will suffer.