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2. The Bush Presidency in Historical Context: The Limitations of the Partisan Presidency
- University of Pittsburgh Press
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19 thE bUsh PrEsiDEncy in historicL contExt the Limitations of the Partisan Presidency nicol c. rae 2 G eorge W. Bush’s presidency was contentious from the moment that his election as president was confirmed by the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. The court’s decision meant that Bush joined the list of three other U.S. presidents who owed their election to a victory in the Electoral College while finishing second in the national popular vote. The protracted and bitter post-election conflict over Florida ’s electoral votes not only raised further initial questions about the “legitimacy ” of the Bush presidency (Dionne and Kristol 2001; Coleman and Price 2009) but also took place within a context of increasing partisanship in American politics. Unlike the three presidents referred to above, George W. Bush was narrowly reelected to a second term in 2004, but his narrow victory in a close and bitterly contested election only intensified the atmosphere of polarization that had already come to characterize his administration. Despite losing the popular vote for president, Bush from the outset governed as if he had a clear mandate from the public for his strongly conservative economic, domestic, and foreign policy agenda (Frum 2003a; 2003b). So integral are the role of national agenda setter and the notion 20 nicol c. rae of a policy “mandate” to the modern presidency that these claims were generally accepted by both press and public, and several of the most significant items on the Bush agenda were enacted during his first term (Cochran 2002). Ironically, despite winning a popular vote mandate in 2004, Bush was to be far less successful in implementing his legislative agenda in his second term, despite his claim on the day following the election that his 51 percent popular vote victory over Democrat John Kerry had earned him “political capital” (Edwards 2007, 188). George W. Bush’s presidency was also characterized by his response to 9/11. The hijackings and terrorist attacks on New York and Washington marked a significant early turning point in the Bush administration, not only in the president’s popularity, which soared temporarily in the wake of the tragedy, but also in the administration’s focus and direction in foreign and internal security policy, including military action in Afghanistan and (more controversially) Iraq and strong domestic security measures and federal government reorganization (Keller 2003). Even as the U.S. military became bogged down in Iraq in 2003–2004, the “war on terror” was still apparently decisive in Bush’s narrow reelection victory in 2004 (Jacobson 2007; Fiorina et al. 2005). In the second Bush term, however, the continuing attrition of American lives and resources in Iraq coupled with the administration’s politically ham-fisted reaction to the damage inflicted on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 were the major factors contributing to the collapse of public support for the president in 2005–2006. These factors also contributed to the loss of Republican control of both houses of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections, which effectively ended the administration ’s ability to set the national domestic political agenda. The “base-plus” (united congressional Republicans with selective Democratic support) politics of the first term that had enabled the administration to pass important tax-cutting and education reforms proved ineffectual in rallying public support for the president’s reform of Social Security in 2005, and Bush’s bipartisan initiatives on immigration in 2006 and 2007 failed for lack of support within his own party. With the national economy also gradually moving into recession and the dramatic collapse of the nation’s banking and financial system due to the home mortgage crisis in September 2008, George W. Bush would leave office generally regarded as a failed president, with some of the lowest presidential approval ratings in American history. Bush was initially able to take advantage of the highly partisan and [3.91.8.23] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 21:26 GMT) 21 the bush presidency in historical context competitive American electoral politics at the turn of the twenty-first century as well as the natural authority that Americans bestow on the chief executive in times of perceived crisis in national security. The ultimate political fate of the administration seems to demonstrate, however, that a partisan approach to presidential leadership, while it can produce presidential successes in specific circumstances, does not render incumbents immune to the natural rhythms of the contemporary presidency. Past and Present...