SOURCE: Gallup Poll of 3,037 adults, conducted by telephone Jan. 2-4./Rich Clabaugh/STAFF Click to Enlarge

Last days in office: As Bush’s term ends, the economy is on the brink of deep crisis. But his supporters cite many accomplishments. AP/file

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How will history judge Bush?

Never in polls has one president experienced such highs and lows in job approval.

from the January 13, 2009 edition

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Daily podcast | 01.12.09

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Pat Murphy talks with
Monitor staff writer Linda Feldmann about the legacy of President George W. Bush.

Subscribe iTunes | More Audio

Part 1 of three - 01/13/09
How will history judge Bush?

• Bush was hands-on for education, healthcare; hands-off for planet
  
  
• Is the recession Bush's fault?

Part 2 of three - 01/14/09
Bush pushed the limits of presidential power

• Editorial: Judging Bush with a bird's eye

Part 3 of three - 01/15/09
Five ways Bush's policies changed world

• Bush scores well on India and China, less so for Iran, N. Korea
  
  
• In Iraq, an assertion of US 'hard' power
  
  
• An intense US focus on checking terrorism

Timeline: Eight years marked by war on terror, war in Iraq

Bush also claims credit for trying to reform the immigration system and Social Security, two risky ventures, as he spent political capital on each and came up empty-handed. On immigration, he favored a plan to tighten border security, create a temporary worker program, and allow illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship. A majority of Republicans balked at what they called "amnesty." On Social Security, Bush wanted to allow workers to invest part of their payroll tax in private accounts – a plan congressional Democrats uniformly opposed. By this point in Bush's presidency, the start of his second term, his popularity was on the wane, drifting below 50 percent as Iraq war opposition grew, and he could not get GOP congressional leaders to carry water for the plan. After hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans that summer, Bush's political capital was gone.

The two policy initiatives – which Bush now touts as helping shape debate for the future – illustrate the difficulty of placing an ideological label on Bush's approach. At times, as with immigration and education, he can make common cause with Democrats. At others, he comes right out of the conservative playbook. In a way, the common thread is that the first MBA president is a friend to business, not only with immigration and Social Security, but also education, taxes, energy, and the environment.

But ideologically, he is hard to pigeonhole. "I think it's fair to say that he doesn't fit into any discernible camp in the conservative movement," says Michael Franc, vice president for government relations at the Heritage Foundation.

Other conservatives are less charitable. David Keating, executive director of the Club for Growth, slams Bush as a "big-government Republican," over the explosion in federal spending and deficits.

Though Bush maintains 72 percent support among self-identified conservatives, according to Gallup, he seems to have few friends in the ranks of leading Republicans, at least in public. At a recent debate among competitors for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, Ronald Reagan remained the gold standard of GOP virtue, with nary a kind word for the current president. Politically, Bush leaves behind a party in disarray.

His own image is also badly in need of repair. Never since the advent of modern polling has one president experienced such highs and lows in job approval. After 9/11, when he rallied a shocked nation, Bush hit 90 percent in Gallup. By last October, he was at 25 percent.

Many observers have spoken of the lost opportunity of 9/11, when Bush had the nation, if not the world, behind him. Bush had come to the presidency promising to be "a uniter, not a divider," after the polarizing Clinton years and the contested election of 2000. Indeed, his record as governor of Texas, where he worked easily with Democrats, held promise. And the bipartisan education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, added hope.

But politics intervened. "The key moment was where he and Rove decided to take advantage of 9/11 in the midterm elections [of 2002]," says Bruce Buchanan, a presidential scholar at the University of Texas, Austin. "It permanently alienated Democrats."

After eight years in office, Bush leaves a legacy rich for historians. Thumbnail assessments of his domestic record on education, and on the environment and energy, are at right. See page 11 for a review of his economic record.

• Wednesday: Bush's legal legacy and his recalibration of the constitutional balance of power. Thursday: his foreign-policy record.

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