President Bush spent the summer the way he probably wanted to: out of the limelight and trying to get business done. Unfortunately, for a president without a national mandate, this is not effective politics. It showed early in the summer, as a New York Times poll had Bush’s approval rating hovering near 50 percent. While he received high marks for personal character and integrity, the true presidential measuring stick?job approval?teetered on the lowest point for a president in nearly half a century.
For much of June and July, the only news coming from the White House was bad. Vice President Dick Cheney was (and still is) withholding important documents from the Office of Management and Budget regarding his meeting with energy corporations. The president’s daughters were caught using a fake ID to buy margaritas at a popular Texas bar. European leaders decried Bush’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, his pursuance of national missile defense and the former governor’s record on the death penalty. Only about 10 percent of Europeans approve of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy. Throughout all of this, Bush came off as too conservative and lost what has become the prize of modern politics?the moderate center.
Yet in the summer of Chandra Levy, the President seemed just as invisible as the missing intern. When the people wanted to see their president and hear about his position on patients’ rights, campaign finance reform and stem cell research, he kept out of the public eye. Was he hiding something? Did he not have an answer to these issues? Was he afraid of something? Thus, his stance faltered, and it seemed that the most powerful men in Washington were in the Senate hall, not on Pennsylvania Avenue. A good public relations scheme this was not.
On Aug. 9, however, Bush finally did what a president is supposed to do?get in the public eye and do something substantial. His decision to allow limited stem cell research was aired on prime-time television on all the major networks. It was his first television appearance of the kind. While he failed to fully satisfy those on extreme ends of the issue, he finally struck a cord with moderates. It was a savvy political decision, and the president received high marks for it. This is the kind of Bush we want to see. He must not be afraid to make decisions and remain in contact with the U.S. public. His campaign was filled with empty rhetoric and so was much of the summer. President Bush will only deserve a month-long vacation and the nation’s respect when he fills this rhetoric with achievement and lets the public know so.
