Obstructing consensus

I think nothing, not even fear of a tainted legacy, will make the president embrace the national consensuses (consensi?) on stem cell research, global warming, and Iraq. Which is the reason I wonder why Ron Brownstein is using that angle--the legacy angle--to attack Bush for his stubborness:

[O]n stem cells, global warming and Iraq, Bush seems intent on defending the decisions he's made already, even at the price of obstructing a new consensus attempting to form around him. If Bush continues to view standing alone as the highest form of principle, he will never escape the dead end into which he's steered his second term.

If only doing what the people want was Bush's animating principle. But at least on the global warming and Iraq fronts, the much, much more damning point is that the president is doing lasting harm to the country and the rest of the world.