It seems that most presidencies have similar "meltdowns" in the second term - Reagan - Contra Gate, Clinton - Monica gate; Bush - Katrina fallout and his SC nominations - which signal a departure form the previous "more ideological" stance.
Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but that seems to be consistent with my concept of "puppet presidency" - the president is merely an actor hired to announce to the public decisions made by the power elite. Therefore, the first phase of the presidency is playing a silly populist card by appealing to the right or the left popular sentiments. The key decisions, however, are neither right nor left but pro-business - right leaning but moderate. That pisses ideologues who read too much into presidential populist rhetoric - the rightists, because they had much higher hopes, the liberals because they see a betrayal.
If this assessment is accurate - presidential elections are really the "attenuation of the shadow. "
Wojtek