One thing to watch over the next 10-15 years is the political isolation of the United States with respect to oil producing nations.
Today we notice that Russia and China fall over themselves to make sure that countries like Iran get what they want in the UN Security council. You also saw them "protect" Iraq before the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein by doing everything in their power to water down the inspection process. Successful or no, they have positioned themselves as "friends" to oil producing nations. As we hammer away at countries like Venezuela, they embrace them.
As oil becomes more scarce and more expensive as time goes on, the political damage that George Bush has done during his presidency will become more prevalent. If you look around the world, we have less friendly oil producing nations in our stable than we did just a decade ago.
Even the Iraqis, a people that the neoconservatives were hoping would not only become a bastion of democracy but a friendly oil nation as well, are asking us to leave. The prime minister told US troops in 2006 to leave, and the Iraqi people have desired in several polls, by large margins, for attacks on US forces to continue, and for us to get out.
Worldwide terrorism has increased significantly since this ill-conceived war in Iraq, making us less safe than we were before. Iran's influence in the middle east has skyrocketed with the demise of Saddam Hussein's regime because we have proven to be highly inept in our execution of the Iraq war.
Afghanistan has fallen back to the resurgent taliban, the warlords, and a reformed al-qaeda as we've starved that nation for funding. Waziristan is only the latest setback in a long string of them.
This is not to say that the intent has been wrong. But the execution has been botched in nearly every conceivable manner and has opened the way for other opportunistic countries (Russia and China) to isolate us as the years go on.
Whether it's global warming initiatives and alternative energy technology, stem cell patents and other biomedical advances, and so forth and so on, we're lagging.
The US is in a pitiful position with respect to declining education funding and accountability, high birth mortality rates, lack of high speed internet infrastructure deployment with respect to other nations, millions of additional people falling into poverty while only a few (which I and my husband are a part of) advance, and national infrastructure which is deteriorating at an ever increasing pace (bridges, roads, tunnels).
And yet the way this president has chosen to define his presidency is to ignore these pressing needs and focus on the things that divide us.
Our national debt ($9.2 Trillion today) is projected to reach $9.5-$10 Trillion by the time Bush leaves office next year, leaving our generation and future generations as a greatly increased debtor nation. This at a time when Social Security and Medicare are set to wreak havoc on our fiscal outlook. Instead of focusing on shoring up our economic stability, this administration, and the ousted republican congress, have instead been horribly profligate. Add in the prescription drug benefit, which is scheduled to deprive this nation of an additional $1-$2 Trillion over the next 8 years on top of the existing Medicare program, and the fiscal picture just doesn't look very good in the long run.
The damage that this president has brought upon the United States through his "diplomacy" and complete contempt for science/fiscal sanity of any kind may not necessarily be felt today, but most definitely in the years to come.
Now you may ask, how exactly can we overcome these obstacles? We need a President who can get all sides to listen and move forward to address the overwheming challenges we face. We need a President who seeks not to divide us for political gain, but to unite us.
We need Barack Obama to help repair the damage the Bush years have done to this country.