George W. Bush

Evaluating the President at Midterm

Edited by Bryan Hilliard, Tom Lansford, and Robert P. Watson

Subjects: Presidency, The, Leadership Studies
Series: SUNY series on the Presidency: Contemporary Issues
Paperback : 9780791461341, 298 pages, August 2004
Hardcover : 9780791461334, 298 pages, August 2004

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Table of contents

Preface

Introduction
Robert P. Watson, Bryan Hilliard, and Tom Lansford

Part 1: Leadership and Character

1. The Arbiter of Fate: The Presidential Character of George W. Bush
Bill Kirtley

2. Compassionate Conservativism Meets Communitarianism
W. W. Riggs

3. The Embryonic Stem Cell Debate and the Battle between Politics and Ethics
Bryan Hilliard

Part 2: Domestic Policy

4. An Early Assessment of President George W. Bush and the Environment
Glen Sussman and Byron W. Daynes

5. Vigor and Vacillation: An Early Assessment of Bush's Economic Policy
Chris J. Dolan

6. Ironing Out Reelection: George W. Bush and the Politics of Steel
Douglas M. Brattebo

7. The Politics behind Bush's No Child Left Behind Initiative: Ideas, Elections, and Top-Down
Education Reform
Robert Maranto, with Laura Coppeto

Part 3: Foreign Policy and the War on Terror

8. The Bush Doctrine: Redefining the U. S. Role in World Politics for the Twenty-first Century?
Cameron G. Thies

9. A United Front? The Bush Administration, Coalition Diplomacy, and the Military Campaign in Afghanistan
Tom Lansford

10. The Bush Military Tribunal: Relying on the Nazi Saboteur Case
Louis Fisher

11. The War on Terrorism and Homeland Security: Presidential and Congressional Challenges
Richard S. Conley

Part 4: The Bush Administration

12. The Bush White House: Comparisons with Previous White Houses
Bradley H. Patterson Jr.

13. Vice President Dick Cheney: Trendsetter or Just Your Typical Veep?
Jack Lechelt

14. "Comforter in Chief": The Transformation of First Lady Laura Bush
Robert P. Watson

Conclusion
Robert P. Watson, Tom Lansford, and Bryan Hilliard

Appendix

About the Contributors

Index

Essays on the first two years of the Bush presidency.

Description

Bringing together presidential scholars, leading voices on the presidency, and former White House aides, this book provides a timely and thorough assessment of George W. Bush at the historic midpoint of his presidency. The book covers Bush's character and leadership style, domestic policy, foreign policy and the War on Terror, and the Bush administration. It concludes with a report card on the Bush presidency, whereby the President, his staff, and his legislative record are graded.

Bryan Hilliard is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at New England College. He is the coeditor (with Tom Lansford, J. L. Walsh, and Patrick Hayden) of Debating Environmental Regimes. Tom Lansford is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Mississippi on the Gulf Coast. Robert P. Watson is Associate Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author and editor of several books, including Life in the White House: A Social History of the First Family and the President's House, published by SUNY Press.