Change can't always happen quickly

Perhaps the strident criticism of the Bush administration from conservative ranks in this country has been premature. They objected to Bush's carefree spending, his two wars, his presumed violation of several amendments to the Constitution, and a host of other neo-con innovations that rankled traditional republican tenets held since the Reagan administration of the 1980s.

But now, the former president's policies and programs may have been a potential boon to future Republican administrations. Inadvertently the conditions that existed before Obama took office -- the insurmountable national debt and increasing deficit, the unending war in Afghanistan, the uncertain future of Iraq, the near collapse of our economy, and our diminishing place in the world -- have placed an insurmountable obstacle for any successive political administration to overcome.

The country, with its ADD, its penchant for fast delivery of virtually everything, and its characteristic forgetfulness, will undoubtedly relinquish its hard fought-gains this last two years as if Barack Obama were never elected. When an administration is selected by the public who has these attributes and wants immediate solutions to impossible problems, then we have no meaningful future because we've forgotten our misspent past.

James D. Cook

Streamwood