Quack

If ever there was a moment for America to show itself the 'humble nation' that President Bush so mendaciously promised in 2000, this is it. But humility is not in this administration's gene pool. Its nature is to lecture and lord it over others.

Even Katrina, which turned a major American city into Mogadishu and laid bare the shameful divisions of wealth, class and colour in the US for all the world to see, is unlikely to dent its sense of righteousness in its foreign policy.

But reality cannot forever be denied, even by this White House which for so long has lived in a universe in which everything is going swimmingly in Iraq, where tax cuts answer all problems, and where global warming does not exist.

Katrina, and the initial shambolic response of the government to the calamity, have changed everything.

For the world, US preaching, US leadership, even US power ring hollow. Back home, a quarter-century era of anti-government is surely coming to an end. President Bush could rise to the occasion by recognising this.

More probably he will not. So then he will spend out his time in office as the lamest of lame ducks, disavowed even by those in his party who realise that his way of doing things does not work.

Neatly said. Those Brits don't mince words. Nice to know that elsewhere on the globe, meaning remains intact.