Crisis Brings Shift In Presidential Style...
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 14, 2001; Page A01
For his first eight months in office, President Bush preferred an understated, sometimes subdued style. That presidency ended yesterday.
Standing behind his desk in the Oval Office, a strikingly combative and emotional Bush vowed to lead the nation and an allied coalition to victory over international terrorists and their sponsors. "Now is an opportunity to do generations a favor, by coming together and whipping terrorism; hunting it down, finding it and holding them accountable," Bush said.
The moment was part of a sharp pivot Bush has made since Tuesday's attacks from emphasizing an America "open for business" to portraying himself as commander in chief for what will likely be a long struggle. Speaking bitterly of those who "hate our values" and "hate what America stands for," he swept aside his beloved domestic policy yesterday.
"The nation must understand, this is now the focus of my administration," he said. "Now that war has been declared on us, we will lead the world to victory." It served as an answer to critics who had said his early response to the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York appeared skittish and inadequate.
More broadly, the president's recent words and deeds -- including a visit to the Pentagon Wednesday night, a hospital yesterday and a prayer service and a planned trip to the World Trade Center ruins today -- signal a shift to a more active and visible leadership style. On Tuesday, he sounded like he was still a governor responding to a natural disaster, at first proclaiming that "this is a difficult moment for America" and referring to the perpetrators as "folks" in a fleeting appearance. Now he is embracing the most profound of presidential roles, contemplating a congressional declaration of war, an address to a joint session of the legislature, and the constant national visibility that will inevitably accompany a major military campaign.
The change was apparent when Bush was asked to speak about his prayers, a topic he usually enjoys. Instead, he looked away, then replied with his eyes tearing. "Well, I don't think about myself right now," he said. "I am a loving guy, and I am also someone, however, who has got a job to do -- and I intend to do it. And this is a terrible moment. But this country will not relent until we have saved ourselves and others from the terrible tragedy that came upon America."
Americans have rallied behind Bush, strongly endorsing the way his administration has responded to Tuesday's attacks and sending his job approval rating soaring, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken last night.
Nearly nine in 10 Americans -- 86 percent -- said they approved of the job that Bush was doing as president, up 31 points from a Post-ABC News poll last weekend. An even larger proportion -- 91 percent -- said the president was doing a good job directing the nation's response to the assaults. Bush's rating nearly equals his father's at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War -- a short-lived spike that quickly fell as an economic recession settled in.
"In the first eight months of his presidency it was not all Bush all the time," said Ed Gillespie, a former Bush campaign aide. "The president is not one by his nature to talk for the sake of talking. But he has a good instinct and an intuitive understanding of the public's need to see him now."
Those who cringed at Bush's few initial words and deeds this week said yesterday that they were encouraged. "The first day was disturbing to a lot of people. It looked like the government had basically gone into hiding," said Gary Schmitt of the hawkish Project for the New American Century. Now, "they've gotten their feet underneath them."
While Bush hopped from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska on Tuesday, the administration, instead of having a top national security official reassure the nation, had counselor Karen Hughes, a Bush communications specialist, tell the world that "the president is in a secure location." On Wednesday, Bush aides reacted defensively to Tuesday's odyssey by stating, without explanation, that Air Force One and the White House were targets.
In his first appearances, Bush appeared wide-eyed and tripped over some words, drawing unfavorable comparisons to the confident and omnipresent New York mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani. His Oval Office speech Tuesday night, "while adequate, didn't rise to the occasion," Schmitt said, because it dealt more with healing and the country being "open for business" than with the coming sacrifices. "The country's been attacked and the president seemed more concerned with being the FEMA chief than the commander in chief," Schmitt said, referring to the disaster-relief agency. "They can't be telling people things should be normal but there's a war going on."
Bush has since toughened his rhetoric, and aides have let it be known that he has been leading national security meetings and building a coalition of foreign leaders. After aides said Bush did not want to travel immediately to the Pentagon and the World Trade Center because a visit might interfere with rescue efforts, Bush made quick arrangements to visit both.
While not endorsing the criticism of Bush's early response, Mark McKinnon, who made Bush's campaign advertisements, said yesterday's showing "was much better. Today, you got a sense of somebody who is commander in chief. . . . Today was an opportunity when people got a sense of what was behind the curtain."
But while Bush and his aides have demonstrated that the president is in command, the nation still waits to see whether Bush can be commanding. Can a president who thrives on informality lead a country at war?
"He really needs to show some presidential stature," said Kim Holmes, the conservative Heritage Foundation's foreign policy specialist. "He needs to rise to the occasion of rallying people to great sacrifice. This is not unlike what Harry Truman had to do."
Bush has long been dogged by criticism that he lacks the eloquence and presence the public expects in its leader. He continues to sound tentative at times. Yesterday, when asked about his itinerant Tuesday, Bush responded awkwardly. "I believe I took the -- I know -- I don't believe, I know I took the appropriate actions as the commander in chief."
But after Tuesday's terrorist attacks, the criticism has at least temporarily softened. Though even GOP allies worried about Bush's initial shakiness, even his ardent Democratic foes are pulling for him to succeed. "If we didn't all perform at a high level that day, no one is to be blamed," House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said yesterday.
Some, such as GOP strategist Rich Bond, defended Bush's initial actions. "He had to get all those facts before he acted," Bond said. Giuliani's omnipresent style, Bond argued, "isn't replicable to a presidential fashion."
White House officials agreed that Bush's increasing visibility and toughness since the attack was a natural progression as he grasped the attack's scope. "It happened over time," an aide said. "We've got a different kind of country, a different kind of administration, a different kind of focus."
When a White House advance official fretted that Bush's Wednesday visit to the Pentagon would be too late for the evening news, Bush's communications advisers laughed. "There's no such thing as a news cycle now," said one, noting that the president is now the center of attention at any hour.
Kenneth Adelman, a defense specialist who is close to Vice President Cheney and other administration officials, said Bush should use the heightened visibility to the country's advantage, quickly sending new anti-terrorism legislation to Capitol Hill and moving within days to launch "swift and terrible retaliation." Others said Bush should push harder for a formal war declaration or an end to prohibitions against assassinations overseas, or visit Special Forces troops who would be the most likely to be sent overseas.
But almost all agreed that Bush must use his visibility to coalesce the country's anger into a military strategy -- quickly. "He has the task of mobilizing the country for a war effort," Holmes said. "This is as much a moral issue as a military one, and the one thing the president and president alone can do is make a moral case."
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
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