JB

David Broder argues in an essay in the Washington Post that Democrats can't attack Bush on leadership, which is his "strong suit." Opinion polls repeatedly suggest that the public believes that Bush is a "strong and decisive leader" and support him for that reason.

It is evident that the event that defined Bush as a strong and decisive leader was the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A month earlier, only 55 percent of Gallup respondents attributed those traits to him. A month after the assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it had jumped to 75 percent -- and it has basically stayed at that stratospheric level.

It appears that 9/11 did for Bush what the assassination attempt that Ronald Reagan survived and almost laughed off did for his reputation, barely two months into his presidency in 1981. That event formed an indelible impression of Reagan in the minds of millions of voters and gave him an almost mythic dimension that withstood recession, scandal and controversy.

Almost everything Bush has done since becoming president has been designed to create a similar sense of steadfastness. His pursuit of adversaries in Afghanistan and Iraq is of a piece with his persistence in pressing for passage of big tax cuts and confirmation of conservative judges here at home.

It is not surprising that many people respond positively to Bush's decisiveness. When times are tough, it is nice to know that the people in charge have a plan and will stick to it come thick or thin. But strong and decisive leadership is not necessarily the same thing as good leadership. If the President is headed in the wrong direction and won't listen to reason, then the same characteristics of perseverance that seem admirable may actually be quite harmful for the country. It is true enough that George W. Bush is no Jimmy Carter. He doesn't obsess about details (indeed he doesn't even bother to master them) and he has absolutely no problem with making firm decisions, sticking to his guns, and refusing to compromise. However, as I mentioned in a previous post, a person can fail to be up to the job of President not because he is too reticent and weak-willed, or because he freezes in a crisis, but because he overreacts and pushes too hard and too fast at the wrong times. George W. Bush’s failings are not neurosis and indecision. They are stubbornness, tunnel vision, narrowmindedness, over-aggressiveness, belligerence, and hubris.

Moreover, the appearance of steadfastness may be illusory. Although Bush routed the Taliban in Afghanistan, a year later the country is in shambles and has fallen off the radar screen of public attention. The Administration has simply not carried through on its promises here; instead, it has diverted public attention to a war with Iraq. Moreover, refusing to compromise is not necessarily a virtue if a leader won't have to suffer the consequences of the course he chooses or pay for his mistakes. Bush's determination to cut more and more taxes for the wealthiest Americans is going to create long term problems for the nation's fiscal health that may emerge many years after he leaves office.

The problem with a decisive president like George W. Bush is that he may decisively get the country into a whole series of messes that his successors will have to clean up. In a sense, this is a familar pattern in Bush's personal history: He takes risks, acts foolishly and aggressively, gets into trouble, and then somebody else cleans up his mess. But this time he is not simply the owner of an oil company or a baseball team. He is directing the domestic and foreign policy of the most powerful nation on earth. If he makes a mess this time, it may be a very big mess indeed.

But at least we will have the comfort of knowing that he never lost a night's sleep about it.