Bush Loyalty Test-The unpopular president who inspired deep devotion among those closest to him

National Review ^ | 12-30-08 | Byron York

[STARWISE]

George W. Bush leaves office with a job-approval rating that once soared to historic highs, then fell slowly but steadily for five years before settling, in the last couple of years, into lows that no president has ever experienced for so long.

The president’s final Gallup approval rating of 2008 is 28 percent; a number like that means some core Republicans don’t approve of Bush’s performance, and even among the many in the GOP who still approve, there are a number who are ready to see the president go.

Bush knows that.

The White House staff knows it.

But the president’s political fortunes haven’t affected the intense loyalty that those who know him best feel for him.

The people who have worked with George W. Bush in the White House for many of these past eight years have seen a different man from the one reflected in so much negative press coverage.

And as they prepare to leave on January 20, their feelings for him are, if anything, stronger than when they arrived.

In the long ago, pre-9/11 days of January 2001, Bush came to office determined to run the White House in a careful, orderly way — a complete change from the disorder of the Clinton White House.

When I recently asked former top political adviser Karl Rove about Bush’s approach to managing the White House, Rove never mentioned Clinton, but the point seemed clear:

“If a president is personally disorganized and late and inattentive and meanders intellectually across the landscape,” Rove told me, “that’s what is going to happen inside the White House.”

Bush was determined to avoid that.

And he did.

There’s no doubt that in the early months of the Bush administration, the White House was tightly run, with extraordinary discipline running through all levels of the organization.

There were, for example, virtually no leaks — which was itself a story. I wrote an article, just before September 11, about the “remarkable cohesiveness” of Bush’s staff and the inner workings of the “smooth-running White House message machine.”

That stood in stark contrast not just to the Clinton years, but to the Bush I and Reagan administrations, as well.

Then George W. Bush became a war president. Planning retaliation in Afghanistan and working 24/7 to prevent another attack here in the United States — remember when there was a near-consensus among experts that another would come soon? — the White House ran with even more extraordinary discipline.

That discipline remained intact in the months leading up to the March, 2003 beginning of the war in Iraq.

But then, by Fall 2003, Bush the war president became Bush the long-war president.

U.S. forces did not find the expected stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The American post-invasion handling of the country was disorganized and inadequate. A hyper-violent insurgency developed. The White House came under daily attack from a political opposition that had previously supported the president, or at least stood by as he prosecuted the war on terrorism.

Bush’s job-approval rating, which stood at 70 percent when the war began, fell 20 points in the course of a few months.

Inside the White House, Bush’s job changed.

Fully aware of the criticism coming from the outside — those reports that Bush didn’t read the papers were never correct — he became even more mindful than before of the effect his own moods had on other people.

If the president got down about things, if he panicked, if he was angry — if any of that happened, then the bad feelings would trickle down to the White House staff, and malaise, or worse, would set in.

Bush was determined not to let that happen. “I think he believes that if he lost faith and became downcast, that would radiate to the rest of his staff and administration and other Americans,” Peter Wehner, a former Rove deputy, told me.

“He believes the man at the top sets the tone; and he was determined to set an upbeat tone. If he was seized by doubt, others would be, too — both in his administration and in the country.”

Of course, the worst days lay ahead, as the war stretched into its third and fourth years and the violence increased.

“In 2006, even the end of 2005, it was pretty grim,” William McGurn, former chief White House speechwriter, told me. “He always thought, ‘These guys on the front line don’t need the commander-in-chief wringing his hands and saying, oh, this is harder than we thought.’

For me, I just admired the fact that everyone tried to give him an out on Iraq and he wouldn’t take it. He would comment on that a lot in meetings, in the sense that, ‘I’m not going to withdraw until we win.’

In 2006, there were a lot of people who didn’t want us to lose, but boy, they would have liked to be done with Iraq.”

Beyond that steadfastness, another thing the White House staff admired about Bush was his loyalty.

They felt their loyalty to him was returned in full measure, and it gave them confidence when the White House seemed engulfed in criticism. The president’s loyalty usually paid off, but occasionally it didn’t.

For example, Bush and others at the top level of the White House had some doubts about whether Scott McClellan was up to the job of spokesman.

When the time came to promote him, or not promote him, Bush went along with those to whom he had delegated the decision-making authority. McClellan turned out to be an ineffective spokesman — at a time the White House desperately needed an effective one — and later turned on the president with a highly critical kiss-and-tell book.

In that case, at least, Bush’s loyalty was misplaced.

But most of the time, it paid real dividends.

When I sent Dana Perino, the current White House spokeswoman, an e-mail asking for her thoughts on this topic, her enthusiasm jumped off the screen.

“It’s always amazed me that he’s constantly trying to buck us up,” she told me. “For example, during the election cycle, the president said that I should not rise to the bait when he was attacked, that I should let it go and not get caught up in the election.

For a while there, it was really difficult — after all, over $125 million in negative ads against him were run the last several months.

One day the president called me and said he’d heard I’d had a tough briefing, and that no one wants to stand up there and be a piñata — but that I was doing the right thing and he was proud of me. I have a ton of examples just like that.”

So do lots of others in the Bush White House. And now, as they prepare to leave, those stories are what they’ll remember most about the president.

[STARWISE]

I'll always be proud and grateful that you've been President. Always country and others first, even on the darkest days of the war, and when you silently bore the constant vicious and despicable personal attacks with grace to preserve the honor of the office you so highly respect, though we know it hurts you.

Even though you're first President with an MBA and obviously highly educated and intelligent, you humbly bore all the mean jokes, mocking and belittling and used self-deprecation yourself rather than react with hostility or revenge. That takes a secure individual, and is a tribute to your grace and upbringing (by great parents).

Your love and respect of our fantastic military and their families and the private time you spent with them will always be a standout of your terms, and they know it and feel it.

You're not perfect .. none of us on earth are, but your optimism, good will, personal decency and integrity always shine through. It's obvious that you've worked diligently at becoming the good person God wants us all to be, and you truly do walk the talk, with a Christian heart and ethic.

May you and Laura be blessed with decades of the peace and joy you've so richly earned. You truly restored honor and dignity to the White House, and worked 24/7 to keep us safe from another attack here, against all odds. We will not soon see your likes again.

God bless and protect you always, George and Laura Bush ... exemplary role models for a long-standing beautiful love and marriage and for an incredibly gracious, compassionate and dignified President and First Lady of the USA. You will be so missed .. and I predict that will be so in a relatively brief time, even by those who think they're so ready to see you go.

[STARWISE]

~~PING!

[swmobuffalo]

Gallop polls, who listens to them anyway!

[television is just wrong]

he will be missed as we enter the anarchy coming to us because of an illegal administration.

[SMCC1]

I don’t agree with everything he did in regards to spending (although I think what he did was to sacrifice on domestic spending in order to maintain support for the war), but the way he has been villified is pretty disgraceful.

[dr_lew]

But the president’s political fortunes haven’t affected the intense loyalty that those who know him best feel for him.

... nor mine neither.

[Wonderama Mama]

Well said. I'm proud to say I'm one of the 28% that approves of this President. I believe history will prove me right.

My only complaint is his inability to sell himself and defend himself, but in reading the piece I noticed a comment to Dana Perino where he said she shouldn't "rise to the bait."

His thinking is too noble for politics unfortunately, because there were many times when someone should have been defending him and his policies (the stupid bailout not withstanding) stronger and louder.

[woofie]

I just saw “Nixon Frost” the movie...the left and the press(maybe one and the same ) have tried to turn Bush into Nixon and Iraq into Vietnam ...they may have succeeded with a lot of folks but not all

Good article

[RobbyS]

What is striking is that the success of the surge was never allowed to get out. amd somewhat amazing that when the number of service members dropped almost to nothing, that the public seems unaware or uncaring. I am reminded, perhaps excentrically, of the post-civil war period when after the Panic of the early 1870s that the North totally lost interest in the fate of the people of the South, so that after the indeterminate election of 1876, the whole matter was dropped. Or again, the administration of Harding where the country was eager to get beyond Wilson’s policies, to just “forget it.” We may have just elected our counterpart to Harding, another man who “looks lile” a president.

[jws3sticks]

Great posting and a lovely photograph.

Thank you.

Once the Kenyan takes office, we will all be in a world of hurt, for sure.

[RobbyS]

The movie is another effort by Hollywood to re-write history. Those of us who saw the actual interviews found nothing exceptionally interesting in them, except to raise Nixon in our estimation.

[Eagles6]

Good post STARWISE, I agree.

[Navy Patriot]

Bush has the right to choose not to defend himself from the vilification and lies of the leftist traitor Rats, but he has the obligation to dispute the lies and broadcast the truth regarding his loyal subordinates. It’s the least he could do.

[CitizenUSA]

He's increased government in ways that liberal Democrats can only dream of. Except for a couple decent SCOTUS picks (2 out of 3) and his marginal handling of the war on terror, he's mucked things up pretty badly. Obama will certainly undo what little Bush achieved, and we can thank Bush for that, too. That fact that President Bush is a decent, loyal guy is pretty much irrelevant to his performance as president. I can't wait for him to retire.

[AmericanInTokyo]

In an objective sense, with no bearing on what follows which is an entirely different matter and will deserve its own criticisms, I must join you--and for the reasons you articulated--in offering a hearty, and well deserved

GOOD RIDDANCE.

This from a lifelong Conservative Republican who knows what Conservatism is. History will show he was moderate at best, and incompetent at the worst.

[CitizenUSA]

I respect his office but President Bush is no conservative. He is a large part of what’s wrong with this country right now. I’m not saying Obama is going to be any better, but at least we expect Obama to act liberal. With Bush, the sellouts came from within our own ranks.

[gwilhelm56]

GW Bush leaves office with 28% approval rating, yet Congress only gets 9%, making GW3 times more popular than the idiot LIBERALS in Congress!!

[AmericanInTokyo]

One can tell by the dramatic drops of "Freep the White House" for eight years, although there was plenty to Freep it over. If a Democrat had done some of those things, we would have been out there on a weekly basis.

But no, since it is a Republican, all internal Republican and "Conservative" opposition is evaportated.

Now watch all the "Freep the White House" events start again. This is the danger of Trojan Horse-ism. It neutralizes opposition.

[Christian4Bush]

Bumping the article, with my brief comments:

George W. Bush is the first president for whom I voted, who actually won. Dole, Bush 41, and (thankfully) Dukakis did not.

I’ll never forget him standing on that rubble pile, after his moving words at the Cathedral service earlier in the day, proclaiming that he was about to open a can of whup-arse on the folks who attacked us. I appreciated his love for the Lord, even to the point that he answered the question about his “greatest philosopher” with Jesus Christ, because “He changed my heart”.

For all else I could say, and have said, I hope that Mr. President will someday soon have a new title - Papaw for one of his daughters, and Father of the Bride (again) for the other.

Godspeed, Mr. President and Mrs. Bush, and also to Mr. Vice President and Mrs. Cheney.

[AmericanInTokyo]

you take what you can get I guess!! ;-)