(Page 19 of 23) - GEORGE W. BUSH: CHALLENGES OF A WARTIME PRESIDENT authored by Maltese, John. and Pika, Joseph.

Conclusions

War confronts presidents with a set of distinctive challenges. Particularly in the

case of mounting a sudden response to an unexpected assault, administrations run the risk
of severe disruption and dislocation. We have drawn on the presidency literature and
journalistic discussions to identify five such challenges and evaluated how effectively the
administration of George W. Bush has contended with them. Although the record is
mixed, the administration

’s performance has generally been positive.

It took the administration most of a year to develop an effective response to the

new agenda issues of homeland security and the prosecution of terrorists though its
policies remain both unproven and controversial. Rather than allowing these new issues
to completely displace its pre-9/11 programmatic agenda, the administration found ways
to direct attention and energy back to these priorities even while preparing for a second
stage in the war on terrorism—regime change in Iraq . Thus, short- term response was
successfully blended with long-term focus.

It is difficult to disentangle the administration’s economic strategy in the wake of

9/11 from its larger economic program of massive tax reductions. And that is precisely
the point: the administration did not retreat from its earlier policies even in the face of
mounting budget deficits exacerbated by military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. The
economic recovery has proceeded slowly despite monetary and fiscal policies of historic
stimulative proportions. In short, this remains an enormous policy gamble that has been
consciously chosen by the Bush administration when a retreat would have been
politically possible. As we learned from the Vietnam War experience, short- and long-
term effects of wartime economic action and inaction can be quite different.

Politically, the administration has established a relatively successful record in

maintaining public approval, although not without missteps and potential landmines for
the future. Presidential approval has eroded from the historic highs registered in the
immediate aftermath of 9/11 as the public reacts to continued military casualties,
questions about the credibility of administration justifications for military action, and an
American occupation of uncertain duration. Nonetheless, the president met the
expectations for inspirational rhetoric in the weeks following 9/11, pursued a bold
strategy to buttress the administration’s position in Congress during the 2002 mid-term
elections, and successfully launched the re-election campaign. Highly partisan political
messages contrasted sharply with the unifying, above-politics rhetoric of the earlier
period, and it remains unclear how images from Bush’s role as commander-in-chief will
play when used for political purposes in 2004.

Bush’s performance as commander-in-chief remains a White House image

construct, largely emphasizing the conventional hands-off model but also suggestive of
the revisionist hands-on model. Not enough detail has emerged to give us grounds for a
confident assessment, though the early readings have been favorable. Even at this point,
it is tempting to give the president relatively high marks for learning techniques during
the action in Afghanistan that strengthened his own and the administration’s performance
in Iraq. Although strains in traditional alliances have not yet fully healed and may prove
to be most costly in the long-run, the administration’s greatest misstep seems to have
been in overselling the imminent threat posed by Saddam Hussein. In the short-run,