Can Bush Pivot From Tackling Iraq to Weak Economy? --- Unlike His Father, He Hopes to Use Momentum Of Victory to Cut Taxes, Overhaul Medicare
Washington -- PRESIDENT BUSH NOW sits at the very political crossroads his father occupied more than a decade ago.</br></br>Military victory in Iraq seems assured, but the domestic U.S. economy is deteriorating. How Mr. Bush handles it between now and November 2004 is likely to determine whether he wins re-election or is voted out after one term, as his father was. Just hours after watching Iraqis clamber on a fallen statue of Saddam Hussein, Mr. Bush brainstormed yesterday with Chief of Staff Andrew Card and legislative liaison David Hobbs to figure out a way to salvage his $725 billion tax-cut package, under siege on Capitol Hill.</br></br>"He's in the catbird seat," says Princeton University's Fred Greenstein, a presidential historian. "But it ain't over till it's over."</br></br>The president and his Republican Party clearly have reason to celebrate. The administration's war plan appears to have succeeded without triggering bloody and protracted urban warfare, a spike in oil prices or use of weapons of mass destruction. If history is any guide, Mr. Bush will see a boost in public-opinion polls that will lengthen his advantage over prospective 2004 opponents.</br></br>Mr. Bush still faces big challenges in Iraq. They include the prospect of continued sporadic fighting and casualties, and the complicated task of overseeing humanitarian relief and reconstruction in Iraq. The White House's insistence on taking the lead in rebuilding Iraq could undermine the very government they help create and further alienate European allies, whose financial assistance will be critical to a process some estimate could cost an annual $25 billion for many years to come. The administration's approach already has irritated some fellow Republicans in Congress -- and provided a target for the Democrats running to oust him from the White House next year.