Bush's Leadership Style: Decisive or Simplistic?

[jbfam4]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45277-2004Aug29?language=printer
Bush's Leadership Style: Decisive or Simplistic?

By Mike Allen and David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 30, 2004; Page A01



But a close examination of Bush's operating style, based on interviews with former administration officials, Bush friends and outside experts, offers a more nuanced picture. In some cases, as in the decision to go to war with Iraq or to seek large tax cuts, Bush has indeed moved quickly to set his course and stick to it. In others, such as North Korea policy, he has let things languish and pushed problems to the future. He has also not hesitated to switch positions when necessary, such as when he first opposed, then backed, the creation of a Homeland Security Department.

Many of Bush's admirers describe him as a leader who asks tough, probing questions of advisers but also say he is a person who, once he picks a goal, never looks back. Even strong supporters sometimes worry that his curiosity and patience seem limited, while detractors see him as intellectually lazy and dependent on ideology and sloganeering instead of realism and clear thinking. Because he has a relatively small set of advisers, dissenting voices are effectively muffled.

Admirers and critics differ on the consequences of Bush's leadership. Supporters see strengths that have served the nation well in times of international conflict and domestic challenge -- notably after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when Bush did not hesitate to put the country on a war footing and begin to move against al Qaeda's sanctuary in Afghanistan. Opponents say Bush's way has led to a bloody stalemate in Iraq and a weak economic performance at home.


But even some admirers believe Bush's approach has its pitfalls. Christine Todd Whitman, the former New Jersey governor who was Environmental Protection Agency administrator until June 2003, said she found that Bush's aides closed out information, even from the Cabinet. "There is a palace guard, and they want to run interference for him," she said. "My feeling was that the president would like to have had more opportunities to hear directly from the Cabinet, but there are always people who don't want to overburden him."


"With argument comes refinement, and there was none of that," said the official, who declined to be named to avoid ending his contacts with Bush's inner circle. "It's fine to say he's a big-picture leader and doesn't get bogged down in the details. But that's another way of saying he's lazy -- not physically lazy, but intellectually lazy."

[struggle4progress]

1. "He doesn't appear to have second thoughts about anything, which is ...

... worrisome when things aren't going so well," George said. :evilfrown:

[Keirsey]

2. "The Price of Loyalty" by Paul O'Neill

The George W. Bush White House, as described by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, is a world out of kilter. Policy decisions are determined not by careful weighing of an issue's complexities; rather, they're dictated by a cabal of ideologues and political advisors operating outside the view of top cabinet officials. The President is not a fully engaged administrator but an enigma who is, at best, guarded and poker-faced but at worst, uncurious, unintelligent, and a puppet of larger forces. O'Neill provided extensive documentation to journalist and author Suskind, including schedules with 7,630 entries and a set of 19,000 documents that featured memoranda to the President, thank-you notes, meeting minutes, and voluminous reports. The result, The Price of Loyalty, is a gripping look inside the meeting rooms, the in-boxes, and the minds of a famously guarded administration. Much of the book, as one might expect from the story of a Treasury Secretary, revolves around economics, but even those not normally enthused by tax code intricacies will be fascinated by the rapid-fire intellects of O'Neill and Fed chairman Alan Greenspan as they gather for regular power breakfasts. A good deal of the book is about the things that O'Neill never figures out. He knows there's something creepy going on with the administration's power structure, but he's never inside enough to know quite what it is. But while those sections are intriguing, other passages are simply revelatory: O'Neill asserts that Saddam Hussein was targeted for removal not in the 9/11 aftermath but soon after Bush took office. Paul O'Neill makes for an interesting protagonist. A vaunted economist from the days of Nixon and Ford, he returns to a Washington that's immeasurably more cutthroat. And while he appears almost naïvely academic initially, he emerges as someone determined to speak his mind even when it becomes apparent that such an approach spells his political doom. --John Moe

O'Neill's account is supported by Suskind's interviews with many participants in the administration, by transcripts of meetings, and by voluminous documents that cover most areas of domestic and foreign policy. The result is a disclosure of breadth and depth unparalleled for an ongoing presidency. As readers are taken to the very epicenter of government, this news-making volume offers a definitive view of the characters and conduct of Bush and his closest advisers as they manage crucial domestic policies and global strategies at a time of life-and-death crises.

Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Christine Todd Whitman, and many of their aides are seen in an intimate, "unmanaged" way-as is Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, O'Neill's close friend and ally. Along the way, the central conflicts of this administration's governance-between politics and policy, ideology and analysis-are starkly visible through the lens of recent events and the revelation of the often unseen intentions that underlie actions.

In this book Suskind draws on unique access to present an astonishing account of a President so carefully managed in his public posture that he is unknown to most Americans. Now, he will be known.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743255453/002-2412615-9550410?v=glance

[indepat]

3. W's mind is already made up on all issues and mind you, he is God's

instrument, and does only godly things.