Americans are broadly uneasy about the quality of our relations with the rest of the world, especially Muslim nations,

Americans are quite skeptical about the goal of promoting democracy. People feel it's a desirable goal, but, from a commonsense point of view, both Republicans and Democrats have come to the conclusion that democracy is something that countries can only come to on their own.

We could probably let the [United Nations] slide another week if we had to, without upsetting the rest of the turf stakes schedule. We still need 10 days out of the next 30 without rain to keep it on schedule.

The oil-dependency issue now meets all the criteria for having reached the tipping point: an overwhelming majority expresses concern about the issue, the intensity of the public's unease has reached significant levels, and the public believes the government is capable of addressing the issue far more effectively than it has until now.

Soon the grumbling may become too loud for the Bush administration to ignore,

The concern is growing. There is no question.