Quote of note:

Victory on Tuesday would give Bush a third opportunity to court voters beyond his core coalition. But in a campaign in which he's stressed his resolve and defined the race as a stark choice between left and right, he's given very little indication that he would govern differently in a second term from the first.

After 4 Years, Bush Is No Closer to Building a GOP Majority

…The highly contentious atmosphere in Washington that the new president inherited after Bill Clinton's eight bruising years and the lengthy postelection dispute in Florida probably limited Bush's ability to expand his support. But it's worth remembering that in the first months of his term, a majority of Democrats approved of his job performance in polls.

That didn't last, largely because of choices Bush made. Although he worked across party lines on his education reform initiative in 2001, on such issues as taxes, energy and judicial appointments he aimed his proposals squarely at the preferences of his Republican base.

Consistently, Bush placed a higher priority on passing his ideas unaltered than making compromises that would attract more supporters from the other party. Maybe Democrats never would have met Bush halfway — but he never tried very hard to find out. Within months of his inaugural, the inevitable result was rising partisanship in Congress and rising polarization in the polls.

After Sept. 11, Bush received the most precious opportunity in politics, or life: a second chance. His firm response earned him a new look from millions of voters who were initially skeptical of him. His approval rating soared among Americans in both parties.

But he soon reverted to his initial strategy, offering a highly partisan agenda capped by his decision to invade Iraq amid great division at home and even greater resistance abroad.

Clinton, for one, believes that if Bush loses this week, the reason will be that when Democrats united behind the president after Sept. 11, "he took our patriotism as weakness and tried to push the country to the right, and push the world around, and there was a predictable reaction," as Clinton said in an interview last summer.