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BUSH, GEORGE.   Term Paper ID:20488 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analysis of 41st president's character, leadership, career, policies in context of passive-negative nature.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analysis of 41st president's character, leadership, career, policies in context of passive-negative nature. Paper Introduction: Analyzing the Presidential character, whether in retrospect or in anticipation of a newly-elected Presidency, is a hazardous endeavor at best: unless unlimited access is granted to all documents and individuals related to the career of the individual in question, one is left examining at second- and third-hand distance the images presented. The person who is elected President of the United States is, by empirical fact if not specified in the job description, a public figure. It is probably safe to say that not even the most candid of us are truly objective about ourselves; a public figure, particularly a politically public figure, is so shaped by subjectivity that one is always left grappling at images. Perhaps this is representative of the manipulation of politics; perhaps it is the unintentional distortion of time, wherein a person's achievement Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Doctorow, "Fate, Hope and Voting: The Character ofPresidents," The Nation, 9 November 1992, 536."Character in Search of Philosophy," The National Review, 2November 1992, 12.Kenneth T. His feeling of helplessness and - in the final days ofthe 1992 campaign - his bewilderment at the voters' "unrealistic demandsupon the Presidency" reveal the true passive-negative character of the man. Even the finalweeks, when Operation Desert Storm was the stroke of lightening war thatmodern technology had given Bush command of, his decision was dictated asmuch by Sadaam Hussien's recalcitrance as by his own drive. Yet, evenhere, Bush was displaying the traits of the passive-negative President.His actions were all in response to responsibilities thrust upon him; hispolicies were all based on "legalizations" of his policy, all madeprocedurally correct by the approval of the United Nations. ... Passive-negative types are in politics because they think they ought to be. Danbury: Grolier Incorporated, 1989, 38-41. Indeed, if the pasttwo Presidential elections have proven anything, campaign time is the timeto assert "damage control" and re-write one's past activities as much asexpediency allows and necessity dictates. "END OF AN ERA - Caretaker: From here to uncertainty; Bush will be remembered as a transition figure." U. Ironically, the Bush Administration's biggest failure in foreignpolicy - the mixed signals to Sadaam Hussein that resulted in Iraq'sinvasion of Kuwait - resulted in George Bush the President's greatestsuccess in foreign policy: his activist forging of an alliance to stop,then turn back the invading Iraqi forces into their own country. George Bush, from the above statement and others,made clear his position: it was something he needed to do, a duty - butnot one he enjoyed. Probably not until we elect a Presidentwho has spent childhood through tenure of office in recorded psychotherapy- and then opens those records to public scrutiny - will the Presidentialcharacter be truly open to analysis. He complains that the public didn't care about his efforts. Walsh, "END OF AN ERA - Caretaker: From here touncertainty - Bush will be remembered as a transition figure,"U. Presiding overthe federal government, his disdain for an activist government was reducedto faith in an order of executive administrative process that let events"sort themselves out."[vii] Maintaining the status quo (i.e., procedural arrangements) became thefaux pas of the Bush Administration in three key foreign policy areas: itsinitial support for the regime of Iraqi President Sadaam Hussein, arelationship it had inherited from the Reagan Administration; asjustification for maintaining ties with mainland China after the massacreof dissidents at Tian An Men Square in 1989; and the Administration'salways-belated reactions in support of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin,coming to the aid of Gorbachev too late, then supporting him long after thetide had turned in favor of Yeltsin. Their tendency is to withdraw, to escape from the conflict and uncertainty of politics by emphasizing vague principles (especially prohibitions) and procedural arrangements. To thatpurpose, let this analysis begin with the definition of George H. BibliographyBarber, James David. S. It is probably safe tosay that not even the most candid of us are truly objective aboutourselves; a public figure, particularly a politically public figure, is soshaped by subjectivity that one is always left grappling at images.Perhaps this is representative of the manipulation of politics; perhaps itis the unintentional distortion of time, wherein a person's achievement ofthe Presidency colors all perceptions of previous actions; perhaps it isthe simple bending of perspective that those who have not reached thatlevel can never fully overcome. They may be well adapted to certain non-political roles, but they lack the experience and flexibility to perform effectively as political leaders. always heard from Mr. Bush at the time of the veto that they had his sympathy, but that somehow, or someway, the bills on their behalf would not have done what they were designed to do and in fact would have made their lives worse.[v]- and from the right wing: "Character in Search of Philosophy": [In the debates with Clinton] Bush could have defended the conservative achievements of his and Ronald Reagan's Administrations. Notice should be taken ofhow, during the Reagan years, Bush maintained (and still does) anunbelievable ignorance of the Iran-Contra affairs as they were unfolding -even as two former Secretaries in the Reagan Cabinet, Shultz andWeinberger, contradict his denials; such ducking of personal responsibilitybespeaks the follower, not the leader, the passive character, not theaggressive. A passive-negative presidency is not necessarily a bad thing: asBarber points out in his book, George Washington was a passive-negative,yet his character was right for the nation at that crucial juncture inhistory where an aggressive-positive personality might have either remindedthe new-found nation why it had rejected the monarchy - or convinced themto create a new one out of the Presidency.[x] (They tried, in fact, butWashington's passive-negative character would not let him accept the role.) For the last George in the President's office, the times were not rightfor a passive-negative character: Bush was left with the responsibilityfor the policies initiated during the Reagan years, a responsibility thatrequired far more of the Presidency than his character allowed him tofulfill. He didn't. Bush,41st President of the United States, as a "Passive-Negative" character. News & World Report, 16 November 1992, 82.Ibid., 85.Ibid., 86.Barber, 1 .----------------------- 6 During the 197 s George Bush's positions in the Nixon and FordAdministrations were appointive; policy was decided by others, his job wasto administer those policies. On the home front, promptedto offer a domestic agenda to a Congress that could not have refused thevictor anything, Bush was unable to articulate any policy beyond a sketchyprogram centered on anti-crime legislation and a transportation bill.[viii] None of this should have been surprising, given the Barberiancriteria for analysis of George Bush's earlier career: the man was neverreally a politician, rather, he was a skilled and loyal administrator insecondary leadership roles. News & World Report, 16 November 1992, 82-86.Young, Donald. Why is someone who does little in politics and enjoys it less there at all? Within the context of his Presidency, George Bush was onrecord to favor a minimalist federal government; that conservative credo,however, was taken to the extreme by his own passive-negative character.The scion of a New England "Brahmin" family - his father, Prescott Bush,was a Republican U.S. His experience as a Marine Corps pilot inWorld War II was often pointed to; ignored is the fact that all militarymen below general are essentially the implementers of orders, not theinitiators. -----------------------James David Barber, The Presidential Character: PredictingPerformance in the White House (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1985, Third Edition), vii.Ibid., vii.Ibid., 4-7.Ibid., 1 .E. They become guardians of the right and proper way, above the sordid politicking of lesser men. Examining the definition itself, Barber defines a Passive-NegativePresident in the following terms: The factors are consistent - but how are we to account for the man's political role-taking? Analyzing the Presidential character, whether in retrospect or inanticipation of a newly-elected Presidency, is a hazardous endeavor atbest: unless unlimited access is granted to all documents and individualsrelated to the career of the individual in question, one is left examiningat second- and third-hand distance the images presented. The person who iselected President of the United States is, by empirical fact if notspecified in the job description, a public figure. Moreover, as Barber is quick topoint out, the electorate could know everything about the candidate,predict the future President's typical responses to a "T" - and stillevents, circumstances, other personalities might blow away the predictionsbased upon past performance in an instant.[iii] Barber still maintainsthat the President will probably perform true to character, if thatcharacter is analyzed correctly; the writer of this paper has some doubts. "Faith, Hope and Voting: The Character of Presidents." The Nation, 9 November 1992, 534-536.Walsh, Kenneth T. The answer lies in the passive- negative's character-rooted orientation toward doing dutiful service (all underlines are this writer's emphasis, not Barber's); this compensates for low self-esteem based on a sense of uselessness. S. L. Passive-negatives emphasize their civic virtue.[iv] That description given, one could be reading a post-mortem on theBush Presidency - both from the left wing - The would-be beneficiaries of these bills ... Senator for Connecticut from 1952 to 1963 - GeorgeBush was raised to believed in the status quo as exemplar. L. The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House. And he never has, in any consistent or intelligible way, which is why his re-election is still in peril.[vi] The specifics to which these characterizations are ascribed are manyand varied. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972."Character in Search of Philosophy." National Review, 2 November 1992, 12- 14.Doctorow, E. "I worked my heart out," he told a friend recently, "and it didn't matter."[ix] In the final analysis, how the person feels about the job of holdingpublic office is one of the key determining factors in predictingPresidential character. Moreover, in the true mold of a passive-negative President, once theimmediate need to respond was over, George Bush did not know what to dowith the momentum given his Presidency as a result of the Persian Gulf Warvictory. Nevertheless, the subject of this paper is retrospective - and onthat basis of hindsight overview one must admit that the Barberian criteriawhen applied to the Presidency of George Bush pretty accurately fit themold of how his character predictions would describe the man. This caveat is presented as a prelude to analyzing the Presidentialcareer of George Herbert Bush along the guidelines set up by James DavidBarber in his landmark work, The Presidential Character: PredictingPerformance in the White House. As Barber takes great pains to emphasizein his prefaces (there have been three updated editions since the book'soriginal publication in 1972), short of "psychoanalytic interpretations atthe symbolic level,"[i] there are only the external signposts to judge by -and in examining those, he asserts, one can anticipate (or analyze)Presidential performance by employing the "psychology of adaptation,stressing the ways interpersonal experience shapes the person's self-image,his world view, and his political style ..."[ii] Barber's reasoning, ofcourse, is justified by necessity: no person campaigning for the highestoffice in the land is about to commit the politically suicidal blunder ofsoul-baring to the electorate just so that the voters' may reasonablypredict how the candidate will perform as president. "Bush, George Herbert Walker." The Encyclopedia Americana International Edition. He was not prepared to follow through on the implications of thewar itself: Hussein remained in power, a large portion of the Iraqi Armywas allowed to escape intact - the word "victory" carries a hollow ring twoyears later as Iraqi belligerence continues. His brief two terms in Congress, four yearsin all, constituted the entire career in elective office of George Bushprior to serving as Ronald Reagan's Vice-President; in the former capacityhe was not in office long enough to attain seniority and any position ofpower, as Reagan's second he was expected to be - and fulfilled theexpectation - the President's loyal stand-in. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.