Bush's Way

Michael Tackett provides a very good analysis of George Bush's governance style in today's Chicago Tribune. Despite the president's support for some traditionally Democrat items such as Medicare prescription drug coverage, Tackett argues that Bush is anything but a compromiser. He quotes University of Chicago political science professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell:

"This is a president that came into the White House, and many on the progressive left thought, `He is coming in by the narrowest of margins. Even if we don't like this guy, we have nothing to fear.' . . . But that is not how he governed at all. He always had a sense of destiny. This is a president who personally and theologically thinks he has a mission."

Tackett notes that Bush tends to decide what he wants and then rely on strong support from Republicans in Congress to get it. The writer expects Bush to suffer from the types of problems most second-term presidents have, however, as competitors in the president's own party break with him in an effort to prove their independence and stake positions for their own presidential hopes.

This phenomenon may be exacerbated, I would add, by the fact that Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, does not serve as an anointed successor. However, Tackett notes that although Bush's will surely will be tested during the next four years, the weakness of the Democrats' opposition will tempt him to "swing for the fences," as Tackett quotes former Clinton chief of staff Mack McLarty as saying.

The article makes a good case for the notion that Bush is rather more complex than we tend to think.