Lame, But Still Game

The Weekly Standard ^ | April 19, 2008 | Fred Barnes

[Nony]

On the eve of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to Washington last week, a British pollster suggested Brown's meetings with presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain would be more important than his talks with President Bush. The president is "irrelevant," the pollster said, echoing what has become a view widely held in Washington. With only nine months left in his presidency and low approval ratings, Bush lacks political power. He's a lame duck.

In fact, he's not that lame. This is a common misperception about Bush (and a pet peeve of mine). In Washington, the political community and the press tend to dismiss presidents in their final year as powerless. They made this mistake in Bill Clinton's case, and they're making it again now. Bush lacks popularity, but he has plenty of power. And he's committed to using it.

Bush's power--indeed, any president's--comes from the Constitution, not from opinion polls or the number of months left in his White House tenure. He is commander in chief and architect of America's foreign policy. He can use his veto to shape or kill legislation. He can exploit the presidential megaphone to express his views and raise alarms, and his power to issue administrative decrees is significant as well.