THE countdown clocks that George Bush's chief of staff distributed 990 days ago are still ticking. His advisers tallied their remaining time last week and calculated fewer than 300 hours to go.
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Cardboard cartons are stacked in the West Wing as files are carefully catalogued for the archives. By Friday, the last official work day of the Bush White House, all but the most senior officials will have turned in their government-issued BlackBerrys and badges.
This is what Mr Bush is calling the season of "the lasts".
But while life inside the White House may be winding down, the legacy-building is gearing up. The White House website features an extensive recitation of Mr Bush's "highlights and accomplishments", including a document titled "One hundred things Americans may not know about the Bush Administration record". First on the list is "Kept America safe".
Mr Bush devoted his last public policy address, delivered in Philadelphia on Thursday, to his No Child Left Behind education legislation, one of his few bipartisan achievements. It was no accident that the civil rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton was among the guests, a not-too-subtle reminder, as Mr Bush said, that "Al and I have found common ground".
On Saturday there was another last: Mr Bush's last flight aboard Air Force One, a trip to Norfolk for the commissioning of the George H. W. Bush, an aircraft carrier named after his father. It was a sentimental family affair.
The elder Bush, 84, who walked slowly with a cane as he, his son and their wives stepped off the presidential helicopter and onto the ship's flight deck, told Fox News that he regarded the ceremony as "the last big thing in my life".
The younger Bush used his remarks to pay tribute to "the best father anyone could ever ask for". For the 43rd president, it was a chance to remind Americans of his ties to the 41st. "It's a series of Auld Lang Syne moments, of gathering together friends and allies, and occasionally adversaries, to celebrate the special good moments of the administration," said Kenneth Duberstein, who was president Ronald Reagan's chief of staff. "It is done by every president as he heads towards the finish line."
The final days of any administration are laden with wistful moments and political spin. But historians say this is especially true of Mr Bush, who leaves office with approval ratings so low that his former political strategist Karl Rove recently appeared before a liberal audience in New York to debate the proposition that "Bush 43 is the worst president in the last 50 years".
"They're working hard to build their historical reputations," said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian. "Generally presidents don't spend the last days and weeks in office defending their record. They produce a memoir, they write a volume. To spend your waking hours on a defence of yourself speaks volumes about how … defeated they've been."
Yet to talk to people still inside the Bush White House is to come away with a sense that they do not feel defeated at all. Rather, having been through the worst terrorist attack on US soil, two wars, a hurricane of biblical proportions and the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression, they describe a sense of achievement and honour in having served the country, and in particular this president. If there is sadness, it is only that they must part ways so abruptly by the end of the week. "It makes high school graduation look like a day in the park," said Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education and one of the few who arrived with Mr Bush in 2001 and still works for him.
Like all parting White House officials, she will be able to bring her family in for an Oval Office photograph with Mr Bush.
Those aides who can afford to are planning a long break from work. Others, confronted by tough economic times and a political climate unfavourable to Republicans, especially Republicans who have worked for Mr Bush, are finding job-hunting in Washington a slog. "Working on the White House staff is an honour and will always look good on a résumé," said John Feehery, a Republican strategist. "It just doesn't look that good right now."
In the meantime, there are more lasts for Mr Bush. Tomorrow he will host his last cabinet meeting. That afternoon he will present Presidential Medal of Freedom awards to John Howard, the former British prime minister Tony Blair and the Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, who have been Mr Bush's closest allies in the issue that most defines his presidency, the fight against terrorism.
Mr Bush has been anticipating the final "last". "I'm kind of an emotional guy anyway," he told C-Span. "I would hate to have the next to last and last day of the presidency be one giant hug-fest … But I anticipate with great interest watching an historic moment, the swearing-in of the 44th president, who happens to be an African-American male. And that's a big deal for America. And I will have a front-row seat."
The New York Times
