Upload
stanley-renshon
View
218
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/13/2019 G. W B Abstract
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/g-w-b-abstract 1/2
Doing Well vs. Being Great:
Comparing the G.W. Bush and Barack Obama Presidencies
Stanley A. Renshon
The City University of New York
The measure of every American president is to be found at the intersection of their
ambitions, their leadership skills and judgment, and the circumstances they face.
And the measure of any presidency comes into sharper relief in comparative
perspective.
We can learn a great deal by comparing the ambitions, skills, choices and the
leadership circumstances of an FDR and a Dwight Eisenhower, or a Jimmy Carter
with a Ronald Reagan. We can learn a great deal more when both presidents are two
term presidents, when their presidencies are sequential, and when they both faced
major crises, and similar choice points in the conduct of wars they fought.
We have such a felicitous set of theory building circumstances in the presidencies of
George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama. Both faced major economic dislocations, Mr.
Bush faced a severe liquidity crisis at the end of his presidency, and Mr. Obama a
deep recession at the start of his.
Further, both faced major choice points with regard to the wars that they were
prosecuting, Mr. Bush’s surge in Iraq, and Mr. Obama’s surge in Afghanistan.
One point of difference between the two presidents is that Mr. Bush’s presidency
was bracketed by two enormous crises- 9/11 at the start of his first term, and the
liquidity crisis and threat of economy meltdown at the end of his second term. OnlyFranklin Roosevelt faced two such severe crises, the Depression and the attack on
Pearl Harbor that led to the onset of World War II.
Such crises deprive a president of options; he must respond to such circumstances
and the question then becomes: How did the president acquit himself? President
Obama faced less dire circumstances that give him greater latitude in his choices
about how to use his presidency. Here too, the question is: How did he acquit
himself?
These circumstances also help bring into sharper focus key aspects of each
president’s decision making in the context of dire circumstances. Among the factorsthat ought to be considered are their goals, their alternatives, and the implications
of their choices for their presidential and policy ambitions.
We ask: How did each presidents’ view of his leadership role? And, what were their
policy assumptions and calculations of political risk that shaped their responses in
the two sets of circumstances? In looking at these two very different presidents
8/13/2019 G. W B Abstract
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/g-w-b-abstract 2/2
facing similar sets of circumstances, what can we learn of the relative weight of
these considerations in presidential decision making more generally?
At the same time, a comparative focus helps to highlight the distinctive aspects of
George W. Bush’s leadership and presidency, which is, of course, part of the focus of
this conference.