Abstract
The 2004 presidential election represents President Bush’s third iteration of his controversial presidency. From the first, pre-9/11, he struggled for traction and seemed to loose ground. The second stage began on 9/11, as a result of which, he and his presidency were transformed and Bush went from having a vision to embracing a mission. The third act of his presidency began with his modest, but decisive reelection victory. The question is: What will he do with it? One purpose in this paper is to look both back and ahead to answer where this president is going, how he intends to get there, and what this means for American politics and policy.
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Stanley A. Renshon, In His Father’s Shadow: The Transformations of George W Bush (New York: Palgrave, 2004).
Thom Shanker, “As Criticism Grows, Bush Offers Support of Rumsfeld,” New York Times, December 21, 2004.
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see also Todd S. Purdum, “Yet Another Bold Stroke,” New York Times, February 3, 2005.
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Yochi J. Dreazen and David Rogers, “Senate Democrats Engineer a Delay of Vote on Bolton,” Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2005, p. A3.
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Harold Meyerson “Arnold Meets His Match,” Washington Post, May 25, 2007, p. A27.
Warren Hodge, “U.N. Votes to Send Any Sudan War Crimes Suspects to the World Court,” New York Times, April 1, 2005, p. A6.
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© 2006 Robert Maranto, Douglas M. Brattebo, Tom Lansford
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Renshon, S.A. (2006). George W. Bush: A Transformational Leader at Midterm. In: Maranto, R., Brattebo, D.M., Lansford, T. (eds) The Second Term of George W. Bush: Prospects and Perils. The Evolving American Presidency Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403984418_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403984418_13
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