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With the war in Iraq winding up, US President George W. Bush quickly began a new battle, shifting his attention to the domestic agenda with an eye on next year's re-election campaign.
He apparently intends to capitalize on his wartime popularity and push for some ambitious, but unpopular domestic policies. However, some analysts say winning on the battlefield at home will not be as easy as it was in Iraq.
On Tuesday, Bush delivered his first speech focusing on domestic issues since the start of the Iraq War. In an address in the Rose Garden of the White House, he urged Congress to at least pass a scaled-back version of his tax-cutting package to salvage his most important domestic agenda.
The Bush administration also disclosed plans to blanket the country with its argument for deep tax cuts by sending cabinet secretaries and lower-ranking officials into 10 states. Officials said they would keep up the public relations offensive for two weeks, while Congress is on its Easter recess.
Bush's quick return to the domestic agenda stands in marked contrast to the course chosen by his father, who played down the nation's economic problems after the 1991 Gulf War and did not begin serious consideration on a legislative package to get the economy back on track until six months had passed.
The result was the former president lost his re-election bid in 1992, although his popularity soared after the war.
The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll shows that the fall of Baghdad has fortified Bush's political standing. The poll found that 73 per cent of Americans approved his performance in office, up from 59 per cent in the week preceding the war.
What Bush could learn from his father's experience is that wartime popularity does not necessarily translate to victory at the polls.
Bush's approval rating, though high from an historic standard, was actually lower than that of his father at a similar post-war point. Also, the poll found just 46 per cent of Americans approved his handling of the economy.
Bush's domestic agenda is vast. Deep tax cuts, medicare reform with a prescription drug benefit and strict limits on domestic spending. None of these will be an easy task.
The tax cuts package, top on his domestic agenda, is in jeopardy.
Bush has proposed tax cuts of US$726 billion over 10 years, saying it is needed to spur investment and boost the struggling economy. But Senate leaders agreed last Friday to cut his proposal to US$350 billion, while the House has approved a US$550 billion tax cut.
Conceding his larger tax cuts package was dead, Bush on Tuesday in his Rose Garden speech urged Congress to pass at least US$550 billion, the amount approved by the House. But analysts say he is unlikely to win even that much legislatively.
The reason, according to the Washington Post, was that Bush faces a twofold problem; a newly unified Democratic opposition, and a few cracks in Republican unity on Capitol Hill as lawmakers reflect that their own interests occasionally diverge from those of their president.
The Iraq War, while boosting Bush's standing, has had an equally profound effect on the opposition. Democrats concluded that the only way to challenge the popular war leader was to fight him vigorously on the domestic policy front.
Although the Republicans took control of the Senate in mid-term elections last year, the chamber was so narrowly-divided that a defection of two or three Republicans could spell defeat. The Senate decision last Friday to slash Bush's tax cuts plan by more than half was the most persuasive example.
(China Daily April 18, 2003)
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