"Brad DeLong once said that 'Nobody could have foreseen ______ is the Bush administration's version of The dog ate my homework.' [...]
"[...] This excuse is really a serious admission that America's legendary facility with foresight and planning has all but vanished under 30 years of conservative rule. From the very beginning, we've been some of the biggest dreamers and most effective planners the world has ever seen. For better or worse, we settled up a continent, crossed it with railroads and interstates, dammed the West, dominated the skies, got water and power and phone lines into the most remote towns, fought a war in two theaters, and put men on the moon. Say what you will about the consequences of these endeavors; but they are not the achievements of a people who were afraid to look far ahead and imagine big things, who were unable to see all the possibilities, or who were ineffective at bringing those dreams into reality."
-- Sara Robinson, "Stealing Our Future: Conservatives, Foresight, and Why Nothing Works