A President in Full
BARNES, FRED
A President in Full As a full-blown war president, Bush hits his stride. BY FRED BARNES PRESIDENT BUSH isn't flummoxed anymore. He talks with self-assurance, in private and public, about foreign...
...On domestic matters, Bush's views are settled...
...That's easy to say when your poll numbers are as high as Bush's...
...But he did so fleet-ingly, reflecting how concerned he is about them...
...We have glimpsed what a new culture of responsibility could look like...
...And now we know: It's about war and security and sustaining the spirit of America produced by the September 11 terrorist attacks...
...Substantively, he got exactly what he sought from his speechwriters...
...This contrasts with the style of President Bill Clinton, who talked to allies about a problem and asked their opinion on what to do...
...Bush pays minimal attention to congressional input on the war...
...But he touched on what most Americans like about post-9/11 America and hope to keep alive...
...What matters most is "how he handles both fronts of this war, the international one, the one at home," says adviser Karl Rove...
...It's given Bush the luxury of defining his presidency, deciding exactly what he wants it to be about...
...He chuckles about transparent efforts by Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to placate, through newspaper interviews, the American public's animosity toward his country...
...a White House aide said...
...The theme was the "unique moment of opportunity" for the country that September 11 brought about...
...power he may rid Syria of terrorists on his own...
...Not many Republicans either...
...He doesn't negotiate over strategy...
...What James Fallows once wrote about President Jimmy Carter could have been said about Bush: He had 50 ideas, but no one idea...
...Instead, he's tried to seize the mantle of bipartisanship and has largely succeeded...
...Reagan, too, had one big idea: defeating communism...
...George Miller of California, for working with him on the education reform bill...
...At home, it's the same...
...the "axis of evil," figuring President Bashar Assad is so fearful of U.S...
...The international is the one that's more important now...
...Not very...
...Is he down there talking on the same level as [Senate Majority Leader Tom] Daschle...
...But popularity has its benefits...
...In his state of the union speech last week, the president left syria out of Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...He believes Congress has no business asking for the names of outsiders who consulted on his energy policy...
...In last week's speech, Bush went out of his way to laud two Democrats, Sen...
...And as Daniel Henninger wrote in the Wall Street Journal, there "isn't a single Democrat holding elective office now who would have spoken those lines...
...As Isaiah Berlin would put it, he's a hedgehog, not a fox...
...September 11 may not have changed him, but it transformed his presidency...
...The only adviser who might have steered Bush toward a more conciliatory approach was Cheney, and he didn't try...
...And when Bush takes a position most Democrats oppose, he'll lure as many renegade Democrats as he can and then claim he's being bipartisan...
...Sure, he mentioned several dozen domestic issues in his State of the Union speech...
...Bush talked of selflessness and public service and spreading American values around the world...
...He's concluded both saudi Arabia and Egypt aren't critical to America's strategy in the world, and says so...
...Ted Kennedy and Rep...
...Now it's about one thing, the war...
...A prominent feature now of Bush's governing style is presidential power, exercised baldly, boldly, and worldwide...
...The "true character of this country" emerged, he said...
...He informs them of what he's planning to do and invites them to come along...
...It was as if we looked into a mirror and saw our better selves...
...The State of the Union speech, with its call to widening the war and emphasis on America's continuing vulnerability, was total Bush...
...He began as a more conservative and populist copy of his father, President George H.W...
...The only change he required was in the speech's structure...
...He's grown more and more like another president, Ronald Reagan...
...I don't care about polls," Bush says...
...Give Congress a list of energy company officials who conferred with Vice President Dick Cheney...
...True, the Bush administration will, but not with the president out front...
...Bush's extraordinary first year in the White House culminates in his emergence as a full-blown war president...
...Inside the administration, Bush relies far more on his own instincts...
...He's more adamant than Cheney in rejecting that idea...
...He didn't hesitate to give recess appointments to two nominees, Otto Reich and Eugene Scalia...
...More than ever, he's convinced his manner of dealing with allies is correct...
...Bush is ready to be judged, up or down, on how well he thwarts America's enemies...
...As Michael Gordon wrote in the New York Times, the State of the Union speech could not have been drafted at Colin Powell's State Department...
...We must not let this moment pass," he said...
...The bipartisan posture fits perfectly with the theme of the last third of Bush's speech, the part that Bush himself thought was the most important...
...Let polls influence his war policies...
...As a war president, Bush won't engage in public dogfights with Democrats...
...For him and for Bush, everything was subordinated to a single goal...
...He sounded a bit ethereal...
...He talks with self-assurance, in private and public, about foreign leaders, whether they should be taken seriously, precisely how their countries fit into his plans for making the world safe for America...
Vol. 7 • February 2002 • No. 21
