The presidency of George Walker Bush was eight years in length, a quantity that hardly seems sufficient in conveying its actual span. His were two terms longer than their years, replete with one large crisis after another. No president since FDR encountered as much, and by the end all Americans were simply weary of him and the baggage.
His tenure was especially trying for his supporter, who now in the immediate aftermath is made to cope with a gamut of emotions that few other political figures could possibly induce. As a president and a man he was a figure of disparate polarities, endowed with faculties that would at different times cause one to love him and at others shake their head in confused demoralization.
The foundation of this was his feast or famine executive skills. More so than any modern President save for Reagan, he possessed in spades the "vision thing" his father had so struggled with during his presidency. This was a leader who envisioned big things, whether it was a new "ownership society" at home or a reinvigorated, democratic Middle East abroad. He refused to settle for a presidency that would simply bide its time in office or occupy some space in the history books as his predecessor had.
Following the attacks of 9/11 (the first crisis of his presidency) he decided against simply consoling a shocked, grieving nation and lobbing a few cruise missiles in retaliation, instead interpreting the acts as a de facto declaration of war, beginning what he believed to be a long, generational struggle against radical Islam. To prevail, he committed himself and the republic to the daunting task of remaking the Middle East into a land of freedom and democracy. The most complete expression of this was his second inaugural, a paean to the power of freedom and America's eternal mission to promote it.
To commence his second term he pushed hard to reform Social Security, the "third rail" of American politics and a program on the quick road to insolvency. He sought personal savings accounts which would have allowed young workers to invest their payroll tax dollars into the stock market instead of sending them to the treasury to be spent and replaced by IOUs. Few in government were politically willing to touch the issue, but President Bush persisted for months in advocacy of it nonetheless.
This effort was a symptom of another of his executive skills – incorrigible determination or, some might say, stubbornness. He would have his big vision and would push for it no matter what. Whether this was a virtue or vice depended upon the issue. With his Social Security campaign it was a vice, not giving it up until well after it was clear that it wasn't going to happen (and long after its failure had done irreparable harm to his own political strength). With Iraq it saved this country from a humiliating, strategically ruinous defeat. As the Editors of National Review pointed out, his decision to support the surge when nearly everyone else sought withdrawal demonstrated "far better judgment and character than a political establishment that largely approved the initial invasion of Iraq and then sought to abandon it to terrorists." His stubbornness on Iraq was the virtue of his presidency.
His weaknesses as an executive were often times debilitating though. His ability to construct an overall vision was a virtue, as was his courage of conviction in pursuit of them (usually), but at times he lost sight of more immediate imperatives and unfinished business. His understanding that the ultimate defeat of terror depended on the spread of democracy in the Arab world was correct, and that this first and foremost required succeeding in Iraq, the geographical and strategic center of the Middle East. Yet it took far too long for him to grasp the fact that success in Iraq depended upon securing and stabilizing the country first, an accomplishment only belatedly realized by the implementation of the surge policy of 2007.
This was part and parcel to the central failing of his presidency, which was, as Jeffrey Bell writes, a tendency to set a correct objective, pursue it successfully for a time, and then founder. On a host of issues he exhibited a pattern of "excellent initial judgment, strong will, fair to decent early execution, culminating in distraction and in an ultimate failure to finish." Such was the case with tax cuts, marriage, faith-based initiatives, etc.
Undoubtedly, this flaw was a symptom – at least partly – of his spotty record of personnel selection and his penchant, consistent with his stubbornness, to stick by poor selections for far too long. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld might have been the correct choice for a 1990's/post-Cold War military, but he certainly was not for the extended, nation-building reality of the War on Terror. In no way should he have lasted six years.
The incompetence of Michael Brown and FEMA post-Katrina was a calamity his presidency never recovered from, tainting them from then on with the label of incompetence (Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department and others made their contributions to this as well).
Additionally, his freedom agenda was undercut by the promotion of Scowcroft protégé Condolezza Rice to State, who tacked his administration's foreign policy back to the conventional establishmentarian policy of dialogue and diplomacy for its own sake. The upshot has been a complete failure in efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program and to prevent Iran from developing one of their own, or to promote democracy in Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
By the last year or so of his presidency matters had seemingly collapsed. His unpopularity was at historically high levels not seen since the Carter presidency and the only issue he seemed to direct his traditional spunk and feistiness towards was his Iraq policy, which had been under a visceral and execrable attack by the Democratic Congress since '07. With the last significant measure of his presidency he lamely released TARP funds to boost the Detroit automakers, saving them for a few months from the death they were unwilling to save themselves from permanently.
After all of this his faithful supporter was left disheartened and confused. He had always admired his vision, moral clarity, and moral courage but ultimately became frustrated with his poorly chosen cast of subordinates and excessive farsightedness, all of which left far too many of the ventures he and the President shared unaccomplished. He had charged ahead enthusiastically in his re-election fight of '04 only to discover somewhere in the second term that the President wasn't always there next to him, but instead had fallen quite a bit behind.
Now at the end the President's supporter is left to deal with a conflicting miasma of emotions in evaluating what he witnessed the previous eight years. There were many failures and about-faces to brood about: Democratic-style spending, immigration, North Korea, Iran, Harriet Miers, Katrina, etc. But so too did the President have his share of accomplishments in spheres foreign and domestic., many of which have been obscured by the controversies of a political atmosphere imbued with bitter partisanship (which President Bush's Texas bluntness and self-assurance helped to create).
He cut taxes at a time in 2001 when the economy was in a post-boom slowdown and did it again in 2003, both rounds of which helped lessen the length and severity of the recession he inherited from his predecessor. He appointed Samuel Alito as an associate justice of the Supreme Court and John Roberts as chief justice, "whose sterling qualifications appear to include a deep commitment to respect the broad play the Constitution gives to the operations of representative government," as Ed Whelan has written. His committed opposition to federal funding of stem cell research, rooted in a belief in the sanctity of life and the concurrent need to develop other means of research, was vindicated by the announcement in 2007 that scientists have developed a way to turn regular human skin cells into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells. Yuval Levin is right in stating that "he acted to demonstrate that science and ethics are not mutually exclusive, but could be championed together in a way that demonstrated our commitment to the value of every human life."
In the sphere of foreign affairs he withdrew the United States from the Kyoto protocol, which excluded the world's largest polluters from its obligations and would have been a sullen drag on the economy. He helped foster stronger relationships with East Asian democracies – specifically Japan – and helped to grow a bilateral relationship with India which could be instrumental in managing China's growth going into the future. Despite the incessant talk of America's broken image in the world, pro-American regimes are also in power in Germany, France, Italy, England, and other Eastern European countries. What's more, we have good relationships with Columbia (a fact imperiled by our inability to pass the Columbian Free Trade Agreement), Mexico, and Brazil. And for some reason the lines are as long as ever to get into this country, despite the fact that anti-Americanism is supposed to be higher than ever.
His record of strengthening presidential power and the federal government's capacity to combat the war on terror is mixed, but generally positive as well. Eleven times he vetoed congressional measures which would have weakened the power of the President, and he persisted in the practice of issuing signing statements – despite inane criticism – on the principle that the President is the chief executive officer and not "the legislature's errand boy," as Matthew J. Franck has written. His administration dismantled the al Qaeda network and detained and interrogated many of its operatives, setting up procedures for their continued detention and surveillance. So too did it devise means to monitor terrorists communications in an era of cell phones, e-mail, etc. He put in place an infrastructure to combat the War on Terror which had not existed prior to 9/11 and the country is safer as a result. His only folly was doing all of this unilaterally. He should have struck when the iron was hot, securing congressional implementation of these programs on a permanent basis. That way there wouldn't have been the confusion and controversy that enveloped him at the end of his administration. Further, codification would have established a permanent structure for future administrations to effectively wage the global war.
The results cannot be questioned though, and in what is without doubt the seminal achievement of his presidency there has not been another terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11. That is something no one would have predicted following that terrible day and it was due entirely to the decisive actions he implemented from that point forward. In fulfilling the President's main task of serving as commander-in-chief and defending the United States he consistently did right and did well, persisting regardless of the flak he got from critics, too many of whom were small men. As Congressman Peter Hoekstra writes, "President Bush demonstrated the character and patriotism that define a true American leader despite unrelenting partisan criticism over his decisions."
It was indeed a long eight years, and there were many mistakes the President made. But when the smoke and dust are gone history will remember that George Walker Bush did pretty well. He, like so many Americans, responded to the attacks of 9/11 with grace and determination, recognizing the monumental task before him. It will remember that he ordered the overthrow of two cruel regimes, leaving fifty-million Muslims safer and freer as a result. It will remember that when the chips were down in Iraq; when he could have given in to pressure and despair, he didn't fold but doubled his bet and America snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. It will remember that he lucidly did the hard things needed to be done and kept the American people safe. And finally, it will remember that despite his failings and weaknesses as a leader he never misrepresented who he was, he never lost his class or grace (even when so many of his detractors never demonstrated any themselves), and he never gave up.
And if history doesn't remember him for this, his supporter will.
I will.
Farewell and thank you, President Bush.
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