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 Recent commentary from National Journal: Media: The Arctic Persuasion (August 15, 2001) Sometimes, it almost feels like blatant media bias is a thing of the past. Then a big story, such as the heated debate over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, comes along, and the bad old days come roaring back. By William Powers. On Books: When the Mind Sounds Retreat (August 15, 2001) A postmortem on how military doctors treated men and women mentally wounded by 20th century wars. By Mary Hager. Media: The Art of Exploitation (August 8, 2001) We pressies have created a system in which notoriety is everything, celebrity trumps dignity, and the spoils go to those who sell themselves out—to us. By William Powers. Social Studies: Putin Is Right: Russia Belongs in NATO (August 8, 2001) The potential prize is breathtaking: the erasure, once and for all, of the East-West divide in Europe. By Jonathan Rauch. Political Pulse: Personality Politics Conquers Japan (August 8, 2001) Can Koizumi transfer his popularity to his sweeping reform plan? By William Schneider. On Books: Whose Democracy Is This? (August 8, 2001) A review of Direct Democracy or Representative Government? and The Battle Over Citizen Lawmaking. By Keith White. More from National Journal. |
Political Pulse 
The Need to Reposition the PresidentAides seek to revive Bush's image as 'different' Republican by William Schneider .... After six months, President Bush seems to have finally found his footing as a conservative and as a Washington politician. The problem is, that's not where he wants his footing to be. So his political advisers are launching a campaign to reposition the President. They want to revive the "different kind of Republican" Bush claimed to be in his presidential campaign. Bush ended his first six months in the White House on a high note, with a series of important victories. The House passed his version of the patients' bill of rights and gave him a big win on energy. The difficulty is that they were political victories, evidence that he has learned to play Washington politics. The President won on patients' rights with toughness, not charm. He browbeat a key member of Congress and shrewdly displayed his power. "I'm offering to sign a bill and not veto it," he said the day before the House voted. "That's a pretty powerful incentive for someone to try to come up with an agreement." Bush acted like President Lyndon Johnson, who often got what he wanted through lobbying, compromise, and coalition-building. It's called politics. And it saved Bush. If he had lost those key House votes, he would have been branded a loser. The news media would have gone into a monthlong feeding frenzy. Congress would have spent the month figuring out how to roll him. Instead, Bush has gained respect as a politician and has burnished his credentials as a conservative. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll, Bush's highest ratings were on international affairs, defense, and the budget. His lowest ratings were on the environment, Social Security, Medicare, and patients' rights. Those results don't sound as if the public perceives him as "a different kind of conservative." Only one poll finding—Bush's high rating on education—clashed with an orthodox conservative profile. Successes as a conservative and as a Washington politician are not likely to serve Bush's interests in the long run. They do not expand his base. That is why his staff has set out to reposition the President, starting with a monthlong "working vacation" in Texas that the White House calls "Home to the Heartland." During the trip home, Bush will issue his call for "Communities of Character." The plan to reposition Bush has two facets. First, promote his personal appeal. "We want to let the country get a glimpse of the real Georg e W. Bush," Nicholas E. Calio, the White House congressional liaison, told The New York Times. In fact, the President's personal appeal remains strong. The No. 1 quality that Americans admire in Bush, according to the Post-ABC News poll is his "strong personal character" (68 percent), followed closely by the view that he is "honest and trustworthy" (63 percent). Those un-Clinton-like virtues were crucial in Bush's getting elected. Bush gets his lowest rating, however, on a very Clintonesque virtue. Only 45 percent think that "he understands the problems of people like you." The perception is that Bush has led a life of privilege, that everything he has achieved, including the presidency, was handed to him, and that he is responsive to rich people and Big Business. In other words, he is out of touch with ordinary Americans. That is what a month in Crawford, Texas, with side trips to other heartland states, is supposed to do for Bush: Get him away from Washington politics and put him in touch with the people. The Communities of Character initiative is aimed at a second objective. As the White House puts it, "There seems to be a consensus that a renewal of shared values in this country is needed." That is certainly true. The Clinton presidency created a consensus on policy but a deep division over values. That division was reflected in the map of the 2000 election results: an America split along liberal and conservative lines. Bush intends to heal that division. It's an ambitious but perilous undertaking. Bill Clinton split the country on values because he was the first President to come out of the culture of the 1960s, a culture that Bush has repudiated. Bush has to identify "shared values" that do not set off another culture war. Some of the proposals the White House is considering may do that. Those seemingly noncontroversial proposals include promoting e-mail contact between grandparents and grandchildren, adding citizenship education to school curriculums, and discouraging racial stereotypes in entertainment. Other ideas are riskier, such as helping parents shield their children from unwholesome media influences, promoting sexual abstinence to discourage teen pregnancy, and encouraging private assistance for those in need. "This project should not be seen as religious-based," warns a memo from the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Bush's values initiative will have its first and probably decisive test in the next few weeks, when the President announces whether he will allow federal funding for stem-cell research. According to a Gallup poll, most Americans believe that research using human embryos is morally wrong (54 percent). But an even larger number (69 percent) think that stem-cell research may be medically necessary to help find cures for serious diseases. In fact, most of those who consider stem-cell research morally wrong nevertheless believe it is medically necessary. If Bush decides to ban federal funding for stem-cell research, he will make conservatives very happy. But he will also doom attempts to define himself as "a different kind of Republican."
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte. More from National Journal. More on politics and society in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly. William Schneider is the Cable News Network's senior political analyst. He is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times, National Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly. His column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C. For information on National Journal Group publications, see NationalJournal.com. Copyright © 2001 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved. |
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