The Washington Post (which seems to be way ahead of the New York Times in terms of detailed national reporting these days) has yet another fascinating story about the deepening crisis facing the Bush administration — this time focusing on President George W. Bush.
And writer Peter Baker doesn’t pull his punches: he bluntly states what many people have hinted or said more diplomatically. America has seldom seen a President soar so high, hold national unity within his hand and either let it slip away or throw it away (pick the cause according to your own political persuasion).
The key paragraph in this article is buried a bit further down:
The reality has been daunting by any account. No modern president has experienced such a sustained rejection by the American public. Bush’s approval rating slipped below 50 percent in Washington Post-ABC News polls in January 2005 and has not topped that level in the 30 months since. The last president mired under 50 percent so long was Harry S. Truman. Even Richard M. Nixon did not fall below 50 percent until April 1973, 16 months before he resigned.
Baker begins his piece with a new tidbit. Bush is now quietly inviting “leading authors, historians, philosophers and theologians to the White House” to help him find some answers:
Over sodas and sparkling water, he asks his questions: What is the nature of good and evil in the post-Sept. 11 world? What lessons does history have for a president facing the turmoil I’m facing? How will history judge what we’ve done? Why does the rest of the world seem to hate America? Or is it just me they hate?
One answer here will be what any International Relations 101 student can tell you: foreign countries don’t like it when Washington points them to the highway (after they would not just accept “my way” on Washington policies but wanted either a different policy, some input or just some extensive consultation). Diplomacy and building strong ties to many nations and working with them matters.
And here is a paragraph worth dissecting:
These are the questions of a president who has endured the most drastic political collapse in a generation.
But Bush and Karl Rove constructed their long-effective political high wire act in a way that did not leave any safety net: the politics of polarization, governing by the base and for the base, and eschewing efforts to build a national consensus (versus just making sure you had enough votes to win and win elections or ram things through Congress) left NO safety net.
And a drip-drip-drip of assertions that didn’t hold up created a credibility gap reminscent of the problems that faced Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. MORE:
Not generally known for intellectual curiosity, Bush is seeking out those who are, engaging in a philosophical exploration of the currents of history that have swept up his administration. For all the setbacks, he remains unflinching, rarely expressing doubt in his direction, yet trying to understand how he got off course.
To his supporters, this has long been a Bush strength: his inner convictions and strength. To his critics, it’s a character flaw: he seemingly persist not necessarily because of ideals but because he made a decision and he is the one whose decisions count in the end. And he remains serenely confident in his own judgment — because it is his judgment.
What can’t be spun, is the fact that this piece paints a portrait of a President seemingly now as isolated as LBJ during the Vietnam War, or Nixon’s at the height of Watergate:
“I don’t know how he copes with it,” said Donald Burnham Ensenat, a friend for 43 years who just stepped down as State Department protocol officer. Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.), another longtime friend who once worked for Bush, said he looks worn down. “It’s a marked difference in his physical appearance,” Conaway said. “It’s an incredibly heavy load. When you ask men and women to take risks, to send them into war knowing they might not come home, that’s got to be an incredible burden to have on your shoulders.”
Bush is fixated on Iraq, according to friends and advisers. One former aide went to see him recently to discuss various matters, only to find Bush turning the conversation back to Iraq again and again. He recognizes that his presidency hinges on whether Iraq can be turned around in 18 months. “Nothing matters except the war,” said one person close to Bush. “That’s all that matters. The whole thing rides on that.”
The Post quotes various people saying Bush is NOT despairing, not blaming others but is serene. And he seems to feel he needs now to justify himself not so much to his critics but to…..history:
Bush has virtually given up on winning converts while in office and instead is counting on vindication after he is dead. “He almost has . . . a sense of fatalism,” said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who recently spent a day traveling with Bush. “All he can do is do his best, and 100 years from now people will decide if he was right or wrong. It doesn’t seem to be a false, macho pride or living in your own world. I find him to be amazingly calm.”
To an extent, Bush walls himself off from criticism. He does read newspapers, contrary to public impression, but watches little television news and does not linger in the media echo chamber. “He does a very good job of keeping out the extreme things in his life,” Conaway, the congressman, said. “He doesn’t watch Leno and Letterman. He doesn’t spend a lot of time exposing himself to that sort of stuff. He has a terrific knack of not looking through the rearview mirror.”
But some do express concern to the Post about GWB’s attitude:
Some aides see it as Bush refusing to accept reality. “The president thinks cutting and running on his friends shows weakness,” said an exasperated senior official. “Change shows weakness. Doing what everyone knows has to be done shows weakness.” Another former aide said that no matter how many people Bush consults, he heeds only two or three.
All of this suggests one thing: it is highly unlikely — though not impossible — that there will be major change while Bush is in office.
If you feel history is your ultimate judge and operate in a bit of a political cocoon then the prospect for a major soul searching and readjustment of course is difficult.
And if there isn’t much of a substantive change in terms of policy specifics and a change aimed at fostering consensus, it seems the poll numbers…and the isolation…will continue to grow.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.