High Risk and Big Ambition: The Presidency of George W. Bush.
Watson, Robert P.
High Risk and Big Ambition: The Presidency of George W. Bush.
Edited by Steven E. Schier. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh
Press, 2004. 292 pp.
This is an important and challenging time in the nation's
history. In 2001, the United States faced new threats from abroad from a
new type of enemy, and the Bush administration responded by fashioning a
new approach to foreign policy and national security readiness. For
better or for worse, this is only a part of the major impact George W.
Bush is likely to have on presidential politics for years to come. As
such, High Risk and Big Ambition is a necessary and welcome examination
of the "second" Bush administration.
The book's release in 2004--at a time when the nation was
gearing up for a presidential election that would grant Bush a second
term or end his presidency--makes it a timely and useful tool for trying
to make sense of the Bush record and put it into perspective. High Risk
and Big Ambition also is part of a small but growing effort by scholars
to provide an early assessment of the Bush presidency. To that end, the
book joins other edited volumes released in the months leading up to the
2004 election, including those edited by Fred I. Greenstein (The George
W. Bush Presidency: An Early Assessment); Gary L. Gregg II and Mark J.
Rozell (Considering the Bush Presidency); Bryan Hilliard, Tom Lansford,
and Robert P. Watson (George W Bush: Evaluating the President at
Midterm); and Jon Kraus, Kevin J. McMahon, and David M. Rankin
(Transformed by Crisis: The Presidency of George W. Bush and American
Politics). A strength of Schier's book is the quality of its
contributors, who include several noted political scientists and
presidential scholars as well as a Washington Post reporter and the
president of Zogby International. For an edited volume, there is a
surprisingly impressive degree of consistency in the quality and tone of
the writing. The book features ten topical essays covering a wide array
of important issues, from the politics of religion to "political
warfare" during a time of war to Bush's relations with
Congress. These chapters are organized under four general headings:
Historical Perspectives, Popular Politics, Washington Politics, and
Foreign and Economic Policy. A readable and helpful introduction and a
solid concluding chapter by the editor help put the themes of High Risk
and Big Ambition in perspective.
As the title implies, the book has two underlying emphases that it
uses to probe the Bush presidency. The first is "big
ambition." The president and his administration ambitiously sought
to fundamentally change the direction (and, as I would add, the nature)
of the federal government. As Schier notes in the introduction, and as
is impressively argued throughout the book, the Bush administration
embarked on a new path to "create an alternative conception of
government" (p. 2), one that departs from the policies and
approaches of its predecessors and the power patterns of official
Washington in order to put government to work for its own purposes.
Bush is establishing a new regime, the authors argue, through the
reconstruction of elements of the Reagan presidency, the establishment
of Republican legislative majorities, and the "wooing of key
elements of the electorate" such as suburbanites, rural Whites,
Latino/as, and working-class males by emphasizing and issuing popular,
symbolic statements, promoting tax cuts, and instituting an aggressive
foreign policy and national security state. Whether Bush will be
successful remains to be seen, but the second theme of the volume is
"high risk." From this vantage point, the innovations the
forty-third president has pursued are risky; historically, such
innovators in the White House often have met with failure. A number of
examples are provided throughout High Risk and Big Ambition to support
both core arguments, and most contributors offer historical context for
the subject under analysis, compare Bush with recent presidents, and
explore the politics behind Bush's strategy and actions.
The title of the book also might be used to express the intent and
challenge facing the editor and contributors. It is obviously a
challenge to produce a volume on a controversial president such as
George W. Bush, let alone to do so while he is still in office. In
addition to the uncertainties inherent in assessing a sitting president
whose major initiatives are still unfolding and stirring passions, there
is the question of maintaining one's objectivity. To an extent,
Schier and the other contributors succeed. There are neither glaring
partisan biases nor apparent agendas. Yet, I found the overall analysis
and some of the chapters to be a bit soft on Bush by not offering more
critical views of complex issues.
This is not to say that High Risk and Big Ambition celebrates Bush
or even that it is plagued by partisanship or bias. Yet, the numerous
descriptions and extensive discussions of Bush "achieving
surprising legislative success" (p. 1) and of his "political
and policy successes" being "impressive" (p. 247) needed
to be better balanced by, for example, the possibility that he has
presided over a heavy-handed foreign policy; shortsighted, pro-business
policy on the environment and energy; growing deficits; and few
legislative accomplishments. The forty-third president is largely given
a pass on what, at the time of this writing, many commentators,
scholars, and roughly one half of the public see as a mishandling of the
war in Iraq and the economy and divisive politicking at home and abroad.
But let me not dwell on what could be misconstrued as a personal
partisan critique. Rather, it must be said that the editor and
contributors have done a commendable job with a challenging topic. High
Risk and Big Ambition suffers only from a lack of probing analysis of
the aforementioned concerns. Readers will find it to be extremely well
written and easy to read. The chapters and arguments are clear and easy
to follow, and the central arguments about the dramatic changes
undertaken by the Bush administration are convincing. I could see the
book making an excellent supplemental text for both upper-division
undergraduate and graduate courses on the presidency. At the same time,
it will prove to be a handy guide for a general audience seeking to
learn more about the Bush presidency. I recommend High Risk and Big
Ambition, with the qualification that, in the words of Bush 41, the
analysis of 43 was "kinder and gentler" than expected.
Robert P. Watson
Florida Atlantic University
