Three more years of Bush The New York Times WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2005 After President George W. Bush's disastrous visit to Latin America, it's unnerving to realize that his presidency still has more than three years to run. An administration with no agenda and no competence would be hard enough to live with on the domestic front. But the rest of the world simply can't afford an American government this bad for that long. In Argentina, Bush could barely summon the energy to chat with the 33 other leaders there, almost all of whom would be considered friendly to the United States under normal circumstances. He and his delegation failed to get even a minimally face-saving outcome at the collapsed trade talks and allowed a loudmouthed opportunist like the president of Venezuela to steal the show. It's amazing to remember that when Bush first ran for president, he bragged about his understanding of Latin America, his ability to speak Spanish and his friendship with Mexico. The central problem is not Karl Rove or Treasury Secretary John Snow or even Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary. It is Bush himself. Second terms may be difficult, but the chief executive still has the power to shape what happens. Ronald Reagan managed to turn his messy second term around and deliver - in great part through his own powers of leadership - a historic series of agreements with Mikhail Gorbachev that led to the peaceful dismantling of the Soviet empire. Bush has never demonstrated the capacity for such a comeback. Nevertheless, every American has a stake in hoping that he can surprise us. The place to begin is with Dick Cheney, the dark force behind many of the administration's most disastrous policies, like the Iraq invasion and the stubborn resistance to energy conservation. Right now, the vice president is devoting himself to beating back congressional legislation that would prohibit the torture of prisoners. This is truly a remarkable set of priorities: His former chief aide is under indictment, Cheney's back is against the wall - and he's declared war on the Geneva Conventions. Bush cannot fire Cheney, but he could do what other presidents have done to vice presidents: keep him too busy attending funerals to do more harm. Bush would still have to turn his administration around, but it would at least send a signal to the nation and the world that he is in charge, and the next three years might not be as dreadful as they threaten to be.