George W. Bush Evaluating the President at Midterm EDITED BY Bryan Hilliard Tom Lansford Robert P. Watson George W. Bush SUNY series on the Presidency: Contemporary Issues John Kenneth White, editor George W. Bush Evaluating the President at Midterm Edited By Bryan Hilliard, Tom Lansford, Robert P.Watson State University of New York Press Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2004 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207 Production by Michael Haggett Marketing by Susan M. Petrie Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data George W. Bush: evaluating the president at midterm/edited by Bryan Hilliard, Tom Lansford, and Robert P.Watson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6133-5 (hardcover: alk. paper—ISBN 0-7914-6134-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946– 2. United States—Politics and government—2001. I. Hilliard, Bryan, 1957– II. Lansford, Tom. III. Watson, Robert P.,1963– E903.G465 2005 973.931Ј092—dc22 2004008538 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Brenda, Amber, and Claudia— With all our love and admiration Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 Robert P.Watson, Bryan Hilliard, and Tom Lansford Part 1 Leadership and Character 17 Chapter 1 The Arbiter of Fate: The Presidential Character of George W. Bush 19 Bill Kirtley Chapter 2 Compassionate Conservativism Meets Communitarianism 29 W. W. Riggs Chapter 3 The Embryonic Stem Cell Debate and the Battle between Politics and Ethics 39 Bryan Hilliard Part 2 Domestic Policy 53 Chapter 4 An Early Assessment of President George W. Bush and the Environment 55 Glen Sussman and Byron W. Daynes Chapter 5 Vigor and Vacillation: An Early Assessment of Bush’s Economic Policy 69 Chris J. Dolan viii CONTENTS Chapter 6 Ironing Out Reelection: George W. Bush and the Politics of Steel 85 Douglas M. Brattebo Chapter 7 The Politics behind Bush’s No Child Left Behind Initiative: Ideas, Elections, and Top-Down Education Reform 105 Robert Maranto, with Laura Coppeto Part 3 Foreign Policy and the War on Terror 121 Chapter 8 The Bush Doctrine: Redefining the U.S. Role in World Politics for the Twenty-first Century? 123 Cameron G. Thies Chapter 9 A United Front? The Bush Administration, Coalition Diplomacy, and the Military Campaign in Afghanistan 139 Tom Lansford Chapter 10 The Bush Military Tribunal: Relying on the Nazi Saboteur Case 155 Louis Fisher Chapter 11 The War on Terrorism and Homeland Security: Presidential and Congressional Challenges 173 Richard S. Conley Part 4 The Bush Administration 189 Chapter 12 The Bush White House: Comparisons with Previous White Houses 191 Bradley H. Patterson Jr. Chapter 13 Vice President Dick Cheney: Trendsetter or Just Your Typical Veep? 207 Jack Lechelt Chapter 14 “Comforter in Chief ”: The Transformation of First Lady Laura Bush 221 Robert P.Watson Conclusion 239 Robert P.Watson, Tom Lansford, and Bryan Hilliard Appendix 263 About the Contributors 279 Index 283 Preface Evaluating presidents is a compelling and an important exercise. Whether it occurs on political talk shows, among colleagues standing around the office water cooler, by the political cartoonist’s pen, or through the act of voting, eval- uation is something we all do on a regular basis. The process of rating and evaluating presidents by presidential pollsters or scholars has far-reaching con- sequences. Presidents and members of Congress watch the presidential approval ratings closely, with an eye to how changes in popularity impact the commander in chief ’s ability to govern. Such polls are now taken on an almost daily basis, and any change in one direction or the other may have dramatic consequences. Indeed, the news media devotes considerable attention to the opinion polls and the periodic presidential rankings by scholars. It is natural to want to know how the president has performed, and it is unavoidable to compare the per- formance of presidents. So too do the stakes remain high even after a president leaves office. A president’s standing is then subject to frequent reevaluations by historians, whose hindsight benefits from the release of documents, new inter- pretations of events, and the passing of time. This book is dedicated to evaluating the presidency of George W. Bush. Presidential assessment is an exciting and a challenging enterprise, made all the more difficult by the fact that, as we write, the president is still in office. The evaluation contained herein was conducted at midpoint in an effort to provide one of the earliest scholarly assessments of President George W. Bush. However, this evaluation does not pretend to provide an exhaustive and a conclusive assessment of Bush’s presidency. It only begins what will be a long process. The utility of this early rating is that it provides us with an important analysis of his first two years in office—the time of the key transition to governing and first “100 days,” the period of greatest appointment and nomination activity, and his initial attempt to set the legislative agenda—and the momentous events that surrounded Bush’s first two years. This early assessment further allows us to xPREFACE begin to ask the kinds of questions that will shape future discussions and that will eventually help evaluate Bush’s presidential performance, while producing information for later comparative analysis. Most ratings of presidents occur long after they leave office. Such ratings are done through ranking polls whereby presidents are placed in categories such as “great” and “failure” or rank-ordered from top to bottom by presidential histo- rians. This book offers an evaluation of George W. Bush that goes beyond such evaluative tools and public approval ratings by employing political, historical, and ethical assessments of the Bush presidency and his leadership, ethical record, domestic policy, foreign policy, national security policy, and team of advisors. The assessments are balanced and probing, and every effort was made by the contributors and the editors to produce scholarly yet highly readable chapters. We believe the book is thus suitable for students—undergraduate and graduate—beginning their study of the presidency. Scholars and researchers from various disciplines should also find the book valuable. The book con- cludes with a graded “report card” of George W. Bush at midpoint. This project is the by-product of a scholarly conference convened at the Gulf Coast Campus of the University of Southern Mississippi on November 22 and 23, 2002. Thirty experts on the presidency from around the country and world, with a variety of viewpoints, and representing such fields as history, polit- ical science, and philosophy, participated in the conference. The work of four- teen of those participants is included in this book. Of course, without the quality scholarship of these contributors, this book would not be possible, so to our val- ued colleagues we offer our appreciation for sharing our enthusiasm for evalu- ating President Bush. The editors wish to thank the administration of the University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast for hosting the conference, in particular, Dr. Denise von Herrmann for her encouragement and support. Generous financial sup- port was provided by the Center for International Politics and Ethics, and we are in their debt. We would also like to thank Jack Covarrubias and Sharon Meyers for their assistance with the project, and we express our appreciation to James D. Buffett for his assistance with manuscript preparation. Others—the staff at the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service, and office of congressman Robert Wexler—provided assistance in collecting data. To Michael Rinella and the staff at State University of New York Press, we extend our sincere appreciation for supporting this project. Bryan Hilliard Henniker, NH Tom Lansford Long Beach, MS Robert P.Watson Boca Raton, FL Introduction Robert P.Watson, Bryan Hilliard, and Tom Lansford Why evaluate the president? It is an endeavor performed at some level and to some degree by countless Americans and individuals around the world. The nightly newscasts, editorial pages, and talk radio shows certainly engage in their share of analysis, coinciding in the modern era with the emergence of the pres- ident as the focal point of the American political system and symbol of the nation. As the presidency is the country’s most visible office, Americans generally know a great deal about the office and the person occupying it. The country (and a good part of the world) watches presidential inaugurations, follows the annual State of the Union address, and understands the roles presidents play in state affairs, ceremonial events, and times of crisis. From the armchair pundits who assess their president on a regular basis to those of us who perform our civic duty every four years at the polls, the president is routinely evaluated. With the public, the press, and presidential scholars alike focusing on presi- dential performance, something of a cottage industry of presidential ratings has emerged.