The Ever-Changing Legacy

Elon Stricker
Lauren Holt Matthews
Political Rhetoric - English 101
December 1, 2008

George W. Bush will leave office on January 20, 2008. Bush felt the constant rise and fall of approval ratings during his eight year administration, and he will now leave office as one of the most unpopular presidents in United States history. Bush’s legacy was in constant fluctuation. Incompetence will forever stain Bush’s presidency, but so will sheer misfortune. The attacks of September 11, 2001, the War in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and the financial crisis are the four events that stand out during Bush’s tenure. His incompetence merely exacerbated the misfortune each situation presented. Despite the level of incompetence that Bush displayed in handling each situation, history constantly proves that time defines a president’s ultimate legacy. History will remember Bush by the long-term effects of his policies as president, not by the state of nation during the time of his departure. The way history unfolds will determine the way in which historians and the world remember the legacy of George W. Bush.

Bush’s legacy went through transformations even during his eight years as president. He was famous for four things when he became president in 2000. A controversial supreme court decision awarded him his office, he quickly passed a huge tax cut, he enacted a major education bill, and most notably he was his father’s son. His presidency had no real direction. Bush had no true identity that would make him stand out in the American presidential chronicles. All of that changed on September 11, 2001. That day would have been the defining moment of any presidency, but for Bush it was also the opportunity he needed. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, it was a turning point in the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR was credited with bringing the United States out of the depression. An impossible feat, Roosevelt’s New Deal helped bring about the recovery of the nation’s economy. However, on the day that “will live in infamy,” Roosevelt’s legacy changed. FDR instantly became the war time president that led the U.S. to decisively defeat its enemies in WWII and save the world from tyranny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgthakFtZQY

George W. Bush experienced a similar turning point in his legacy during his presidency. The terrorist attacks of September 11th, (the first attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor), provided Bush with the direction and sense of purpose he needed. "You have to view this as the seminal event of his presidency," said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "It transformed him, it focused him and gave a sense of purpose to his presidency that really had not existed before" (Fox News 1). Bush went from being a president with no real identity, to a war-time president seeking to fight the war against terror and win it. In the immediate aftermath of the horrors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, America rallied behind Bush and sought vengeance and justice. Bush promised to provide both. His approval ratings skyrocketed and there was little he could not accomplish with the power of public support behind him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMiqEUBux3o

Bush used that public support to start two wars in close succession. The first was the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and the other was the war in Iraq. Bush’s combination of incompetence and misfortune in the War on Terror is another example of his legacy fluctuation. Osama Bin Laden was mastermind and leader behind the 9/11 attacks. Concerning his capture, Bush stated confidently, “We’ll smoke him out of cave and get him eventually” (Fox News 1). Although the War on Terror was a just cause and maintained the unwavering support of the American people, Bush’s incompetence impeded its success. He completely underestimated the difficulty of not only finding Osama Bin Laden, but also eradicating Al Qaeda. Bush assumed that although 9/11 revealed the potential vulnerability of the United States, the U.S. military forces could still defeat any enemy with ease. Bush’s incompetence in the War on Terror merely exacerbated his misfortune. He failed to view the perpetrators of 9/11 as a new kind of enemy.

The fact that Al Qaeda and the terrorism network became a new, unconventional enemy created Bush’s greatest misfortune. When FDR witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor, the course of action was clear. He declared war on Japan, a sovereign nation, and defeated them through military strength and prowess. On 9/11, a new breed of enemy attacked America, one that carries no flag and recognizes no borders. There was no precedent in the fight against global terrorism, and that was Bush’s further misfortune. Bush, along with the entire U.S. military, produced no effective strategy to combat an enemy with no army, no borders, and no rules. Therefore, Bush’s presidency and eventual legacy experienced further turning points when he resorted to the invasion of Iraq.

The legacy of the Bush Administration took a permanent turn with the invasion of Iraq. As the War on Terror failed to capture Osama Bin Laden and eradicate Al Qaeda, Bush’s incompetence exacerbated his misfortune yet again. Bush should have evaluated the failures of the effort against terrorism, and recognized that new enemies required new strategies. Instead, his incompetence led him to invade Iraq under the pretense they possessed nuclear weapons. Barbara Kellerman is a political history scholar at Harvard University. She noted, “The level of incompetence after the initial 'mission accomplished' was so acute that my guess is, even if the decision to invade might be historically justified, the incompetence that succeeded it ... I think that's going to be very difficult to ever alter our negative perception of that" (Hornick 1). Not only did Bush use public support to invade Iraq as part of the “War on Terror,” he completely mishandled the Iraq War. His incompetence created a very unpopular war that has lasted longer than WWII or the Vietnam War. Despite the misfortune Bush faced as Islamic extremism posed novel, unprecedented threats, his incompetence produced the Iraq War which sacrificed American lives, American treasure, and the American international reputation

Like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina is another unfortunate event that occurred during Bush’s tenure. Bush’s incompetence yet again exacerbated his misfortune. On August 31, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast and reeked massive destruction. Americans watched in horror as countless people died and thousands had no food and shelter. America also watched as the federal government failed to effectively respond. Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes, “But why should we be surprised by any of this? The Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina — the mixture of neglect of those in need, obliviousness to their plight, and self-congratulation in the face of abject failure — has become standard operating procedure. These days, it’s Katrina all the time” (Krugman 1). Krugman implies that the Bush administration operates with the same incompetence in every situation, not just with Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was undoubtedly an unstoppable, unfortunate force of mother nature. However, the same lack of judgment Bush employed during the War on Terror manifests equal failure when Bush applied it to Katrina. Today Americans continues to stake his reputation based on those failures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf1D0A4JZNU

The final detrimental event of Bush’s presidency is the financial crisis. Bush’s incompetence in the economic sector in no way helped prevent this crisis. However, the financial crisis differs somewhat in its nature than the War in Terror and Hurricane Katrina. While equally unfortunate, the financial crisis and its negative effects do not immediately vilify Bush. President Elect, Barak Obama, gave a speech on the economic crisis on September 16, 2008 in which he blamed the Bush administration for decreased regulation of Wall Street. Obama then said, “We've had this philosophy for eight years. We know the results. You feel it in your own lives. Jobs have disappeared, and peoples' life savings have been put at risk. Millions of families face foreclosure, and millions more have seen their home values plummet” (Obama 1). However, while the republican platform generally promotes a smaller government with decreased regulation, there were many factors outside of Bush’s control that caused the crisis. The financial institutions such as Lehman brothers failed on their own. The housing market collapsed due to investment banks handing out terrible mortgage plans. Many people today owe more on their houses than the houses are actually worth. Greed on Wall Street set up this economic crisis. Bush did not create it in eight short years.

Bush’s incompetence exacerbated the misfortunes of the War on Terror, Hurricane Katrina, and even during the current financial crisis. Although the economic crisis had many intricate factors that most Americans don’t even comprehend, the public blames Bush for the country’s economic woes. After all, he the president when it happened. Therefore, they elected Bush’s opposite, Democratic candidate Obama, to succeed him. However, as Obama takes office and even after, American history will continue to evolve. The recent economic policy decisions of President Bush will affect the manner in which history unfolds.
After the financial crisis hit, Bush settled on the 700 billion dollar rescue package for the nation’s financial institutions. He then called a summit of the G7 finance ministers to discuss the world economy. Bush also continues to reassure the American people about the nation’s economic future. Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times writes, “It is, in short, an intensive public relations effort, designed, White House officials say, to keep Mr. Bush front-and-center in explaining the intricacies of a complicated and fast-moving financial crisis” (Stolberg 1). The current instability of the financial market suggest that most Americans and investors do not feel reassured by Bush’s many efforts. However, history could prove everyone wrong and change Bush’s legacy. What if the economy makes a complete recovery? What if historians credit, at least in part, that future recovery to the immediate actions Bush took following the onset of the financial crisis?

Just as Bush’s reputation transformed during his eight years as president, so could his legacy in the years to come. If the economy recovers and Bush receives partial credit, his legacy could slowly start to recover as well. Bush’s legacy may transform in a way comparable to that of President Harry Truman. Truman experienced the same sort of “roller coaster” presidency as Bush. According to CNN polling of the time, Truman enjoyed an 87 percent approval rating in June 1945, which later fell to a 23 percent approval rating in January 1952. Harvard’s political history scholar Barbara Kellerman remarked:

"One of the things that has been conventionally done is to compare George W. Bush to Harry Truman, both of whom had upon leaving office dismal approval ratings and of course as it is well known by now, Harry Truman's reputation has, by virtually every account, not only improved, but I would say escalated nearly to the top of the list of greater American presidents" (Hornick 1).

President Truman, like Bush, faced many foreign policy challenges such as the aftermath of WWII, the Cold War, and the Korean War. Truman received harsh criticism for sending troops into Korea, but history now supports that decision. The Iraq War is highly unpopular today. If in the future Iraq is a stable democracy and its citizens enjoy a relatively peaceful way of life, historians may praise Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmQD_W8Pcxg

Bush’s legacy underwent transformations in his eight years as president. He went from a popular wartime president, to a target of blame for all the nation’s problems. His current legacy reflects his incompetence and its exacerbation of his misfortune. History may remember Bush for his failures with the War on Terror, Hurricane Katrina, and the financial crisis. However, Bush’s legacy may also undergo yet another transformation as history unfolds, and future Americans and historians could easily view his presidency differently than public opinion does today. The long-term effects of George W. Bush and his policies will determine his ultimate legacy, not his approval rating as he leaves office this January.