For U.S. President George W. Bush, 2005 turned out to be an unusually tough year. Having won re-election -- something his father had failed to achieve, Mr. Bush had started out on his second term as a historic second-generation president of the United States. But the initial euphoria proved short-lived. With Iraq in turmoil, his public approval ratings went downhill. The U.S. military death toll exceeded 2,000, and the president himself finally acknowledged at the year's end that America had gone to war based on erroneous intelligence.
A confidant to Vice President Dick Cheney resigned after being indicted over a leak scandal involving a CIA agent -- a mudslinging case that also involved a leading U.S. news organization. The scandal affected the top White House aide, Mr. Karl Rove, as well as the vice president himself.
The Bush administration responded belatedly to damage in the Gulf Coast region wrought by hurricane Katrina. That virtually erased his public image as a "president strong in a time of crisis." The disaster had exposed underlying problems of poverty in the world's richest nation. The reconstruction work in the stricken areas has made painfully slow progress.