George Bush is currently basking in the glory of a myriad of recent successes. In the blink of an eye, a presidency mired in foreign quagmires and massive deficits pirouetted into the warm glow of a multitude of seeming triumphs. It began with the new Medicare prescription drug benefit and the 8.2% economic growth recently reported. Since then, Saddam has been captured, Libya's Mohammar Qaddafi has given up his weapons of mass destruction, and the Dow has risen above 10,000. Bush even grabbed some accolades for his surprise Thanksgiving visit to the troops, despite the little-known plastic turkey with which he posed. In an increasingly Attention Deficit America, the news of the previous month was blown away like a wisp of smoke. Perhaps we need Ritalin in the water supply.
For those who feel they were just getting some traction on a hoped-for ouster of George Bush in November 2004, gloom has set in for the holidays. The pundits claim he is now invincible, and seem impervious to the speed with which unexpected events can also sabotage a sitting president. Nonetheless, for the moment, George Bush is on a roll, and his increased popularity is likely to continue, at least through January 2004.
The most significant astrological factor empowering Bush's rise to the mountaintop has been the Jupiter station sitting in opposition to the Inaugural Venus, ruler of the Inaugural chart. This dazzling combination of Jupiter and Venus, intensified by the slowness of Jupiter's motion, brings with it success, achievement, and popularity for the administration. This aspect literally came into one-degree orb with the passage of the Medicare drug bill. It continues through January 2004.
In addition, Bush will gain a bounce in popularity in January from the strong planetary focus on his Venus: his progressed Moon will be square to natal Venus and transiting Pluto will be sextile to Venus, both running for most of the month. These will intensify Bush's "likeablity quotient", and people will find him attractive and charming, thereby upping his poll numbers.
But other trends besides this rather shallow popularity contest will also be bubbling up during January, possibly fueled in part by the currently accepted notion in the neocon White House that bullying works and the Bush Doctrine of preemption is a great success. The pit bulls are now back in the driver's seat due to the recent wave of favorable news. Intimations of some kind of aggressive action by the administration in January may be seen in the coming transit of Uranus square Inaugural Jupiter (1/5 -1/26/04), the first transit of Pluto opposite the US Mars (12/28/03 - 1/26/04), and Bush's converse progressed Moon conjunct his natal Mars (12/24/03 - 1/24/04). Here we find combined the administration's expansion and aggression (Uranus/Inaugural Jupiter), a fierce and angry enemy engaging the country (Pluto/US Mars), and Bush becoming aggressive and angry (converse Moon/Mars). Other indications suggest that these more military activities may continue through most of May 2004.
It is also worth noting that Neptune, the planet of unrealistic thinking and grandiose schemes, will be reasserting its hold on the administration after several months of the cold dose of reality afforded by Saturn. Pluto is currently square to the Bush/Rumsfeld composite Jupiter/ Neptune conjunction (12/11/03 - 1/14/04), the source of their folie a deux plans to transform the world in America's image. In February, Neptune will be quincunx Bush's Sun, in late January and early February it will be quincunx the US Sun, and by March, it will be sitting in station squaring the Inaugural Ascendant until early July. All of these transits suggest that the initial enthusiasm that comes from Bush's current victories may stimulate more of the ideological and grandiose foreign policy that got us into Iraq in the first place. It further suggests a lack of practicality, an underlying dishonesty, including the tendency for self-deception, and a set-up for ultimate disappointment when the cold hard truth makes itself known after the Neptunian fog clears.
It may be, however, that February and March 2004 (2/8 -3/23/04) will bring some diminishment in Bush's bright star. The Saturn station of that period will be stationary exactly semisquare to Bush's Venus. This does not suggest a plummeting in the polls so much as a dipping and a lack of the strong shine of he will have enjoyed in December and January. The Saturn station will also be conjunct Condoleeza Rice's South Node and square to Paul Bremer's Sun. So obstacles and difficulties will begin to surface once again, likely in Iraq.
I think it is important to point out that from June 2003 through October 2003, the Bush administration underwent numerous Saturn transits, some long, some short in duration, but the sum total of which suggested a very difficult period. And indeed it was. From the beginning of June, the clamor began about the missing weapons of mass destruction. The clamor then rose several notches with the increasingly pervasive idea that much of the evidence used to promote the war was exaggerated or bogus. When Saturn came into orb of the US Sun in late September, almost to the day, the Washington Post printed the story that two White House officials had called several journalists with the name of an undercover CIA agent. The uproar over this lasted through the Saturn transit in mid-October and then dimmed down as news from Iraq got worse and worse, and the focus increasingly shifted toward the unfolding disaster there.
The impact from the major Saturn transit to the US Sun is now only background and will remain so until June 2004. None of the facts have changed - the lies to get us into Iraq, the outing of the CIA agent, the disaster on the ground in Iraq, the burgeoning deficit, etc. - but the focus has shifted with the planets. Due to recent events, many see Bush now through lens of success. But just because George Bush was able to take a little lemon juice and make it into lemonade doesn't belie the fact that this presidency is a whopper of a lemon. This will become quite apparent during the next intensive series of difficult transits coming to the Bush administration, which, taken together, will spell a downward spiral and the likelihood of ultimate failure. This shift will begin in early June 2004 and will continue with great intensity for about 7 weeks with the return of Saturn to the US Sun, moving then to conjunct Bush's Sun and square Bush's Moon, Chiron, and Jupiter. Then it will recommence from the beginning of September 2004 and continue through mid-January 2005, when Saturn conjuncts the Inaugural IC, squares Bush's Midheaven, and conjuncts his Saturn. The Bush administration is likely to spend the winter of 2004 assuming that the world will continue to bow before its glorious mission, but it may very well be that the Universe has other plans.
