For those of you used to George Bush as your president, don't get too comfortable.

Bush, 67, is facing some harsh political realities in the upcoming presidential election. The economy is showing few signs of recovery, the Democrats are on the attack in New Hampshire and much is riding on the "economic growth package" the president says he'll reveal in his State of the Union address later this month.

Bush is also facing an ironic threat: four years ago, he won on the basis of an economic boom for which he was not responsible; now he is threatened by a bust for which he is not responsible. And the threat of embarrassment is very real.

Bush thought he could benefit by reminding voters of Operation Desert Storm and America's new global primacy -- it could have been his Trojan Horse. He knows differently now.

The Persian Gulf War elicited needless breast-beating for the United States. We were not left with a peaceful Middle East --Saddam Hussein is still in power and Iraq still has nuclear weapons.

Bush is found on the defensive not only about Iraq but also about a broad range of other foreign policies.

We know he can stroke our own nation on international relations (Bush has made more official visits to Japan than he has to New Hampshire) but what we need is acknowledgements and resolutions to our domestic problems.

Despite an intensive effort to portray his Japan trip as a success, Bush has been unable to shake the impression that he went to the industrial giant seeking trade concessions and got little in return besides political and personal embarrassment.

Bush, who might look vulnerable now, already says bluntly that he will do whatever is necessary to win.

OK President Bush, but you may have to gag your major competitor:

PATRICK J. BUCHANAN. Buchanan is a wild card. He can't win but he can make things very uncomfortable for Bush. Buchanan can, and is, striking sensitive nerves with Americans. We are in an angry mood right now. He is appealing to an irritated America.

However, he has a severe personality problem.

Buchanan, 53, relishes confrontation. His jagged edge stuns and devours his opponents. But what did America expect? You can't thrust a tart-tongued TV commentator into a race for the nation's highest office and turn him into a molded candidate.

The conservative veteran White House aide has been called the candidate of political incorrectness. He presents verbal dynamite and inflammatory comments about sensitive issues. Buchanan likes to kick people where he thinks it might do some good and he just uses words.

He has said that AIDS is "nature's retribution" against homosexuals. He said that relentless homeless beggars should be picked up for vagrancy and locked up. And he is strictly anti-abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, saying it would be better to kill the rapist than the unborn baby.

Buchanan, a professional writer, knows that words matter. And what his words convey, much as his bid for the nomination conveys, is the dangerous politics of resentment.

He wants to replace Bush's "globalism" with "new nationalism." Buchanan criticizes Bush's preoccupation with foreign affairs.

But America has real global interests -- the future of the Soviet republics, the environment, trade, immmigration, and human rights. Global concerns cannot be wished away.

In Eastern Europe we are left with bloodshed in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, ethnic uneasiness sprouting like brushfires, shortages that could be the preamble to starvation. A grinding argument also exists among several republics about who controls the remains of the army, navy and airforce amid soothing assurances that thousands of nuclear warheads are in safe, competent hands in a region where no one is quite sure who is in charge of anything.

Buchanan is not the man to get the country back on track.

He can, however take the presidency away from Bush. In fact, he can win by losing. He's the strategist of a great protest vote. He will guarantee that Bush will have a fight on his hands until the convention. The syndicated columnist could win 30 percent or more of the primary vote.

He'll never be bland and he'll never be president.

DAVID DUKE. No chance of winning in the primaries or the general election. Duke is only a threat if he runs as an Independent against Bush, where he could siphon off a considerable number of votes.

Duke, former head of Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, former presidential candidate of the neo-Nazi Populist party, and current Louisiana state representative is just coming off his loss for Louisiana governorship and should not be ignored.

Duke says his beliefs -- that the rising welfare underclass is the greatest source of our crime and drug problems and that affirmative action is a racist program --have nothing to do with hate.

Of course, it's a lot easier to hear him say that he doesn't wear a sheet. Now, at 41, and after plastic surgery, he looks like the all-American golden boy he never was.

Hate with a pretty face --enough said.

Is Bush the ideal president? No. Will he learn to be honest and sincere? Probably not. Can he look like he cares more about the nation's domestic problems than its international relations? You bet. Hey, we've even got him to admit that we're still in a recession.

A lot is riding on his State of the Union address and his plans for economic recovery. Until then we keep hoping, against our better judgment, that the recession will soon be over and that Bush can be our political Robin Hood.

Despite the unknowns, one thing is clear -- if the economy doesn't improve, and soon, there will be a Democratic president sworn in next year -- of that I am convinced.