Despite Claims, Bush Wavers on Decisiveness

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-decisive2sep02.story
NEWS ANALYSIS
Despite Claims, Bush Wavers on Decisiveness
By Janet Hook and Edwin Chen
Times Staff Writers

September 2, 2004

NEW YORK — By the time President Bush mounts the podium tonight to accept his party's renomination, few viewers will have missed the Republican National Convention's central message: He is a strong, decisive leader who, unlike Democratic opponent John F. Kerry, steers a steady course through shifting tides of public opinion.

"Some call it stubbornness; I call it principled leadership," former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said this week. "President Bush has the courage of his convictions."

But a review of Bush's first-term record paints a more complex portrait: While he has been bold and unflinching on some issues — especially Iraq and tax policy — on a host of other fronts he has been uncertain, on the sidelines or inconsistent.

While he has advocated overhauling Social Security — a goal that may be impossible to achieve without presidential leadership — he has been vague about exactly how he wants to do it. Although for months the administration expressed doubt about the need for creating a Department of Homeland Security, he now counts it as among his signal accomplishments.

He fought a bill revising the campaign finance system, but signed it rather than using his veto power.

Indeed, he has not yet vetoed any measure — even big spending bills loathed by his conservative supporters. If he keeps up that track record, Bush would be the first president never to wield a veto since James Garfield, who was shot to death after less than a year in office.

"He is much more uneven as a leader than we're hearing this week," said Paul C. Light, a professor in the School of Public Service at New York University. "There are some issues that appear to trigger a determined reaction and others where he doesn't know where he stands or will go with the flow."<snip>

[soothsayer]

1. beautiful! Love it! Good ammo. n/t