When President Bush described himself as a "compassionate conservative" in his first run for the White House, his political objective was to put an appealing face on a Republican Party whose image had suffered from the hard-edged conservatism of its rambunctious congressional wing.
On Tuesday night, as the Republican National Convention focused on themes of compassion, without ever straying far from the president's leadership in the war on terrorism, Bush's advisers had another goal in mind: to put a more human face on a wartime president portrayed by opponents, including challenger John F. Kerry, as stubborn, reckless and insensitive.
That shift speaks volumes of what has happened to Bush in his first four years in office, as both he and his presidency have been redefined by two wars, a sluggish economy, and economic and domestic policies that have left many Americans wondering whether he is the man he claimed to be when elected in 2000.
On Monday night, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) offered testimony to the president's toughness and resolve. Bush's advisers believe his leadership on fighting terrorism since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, holds the key to his reelection. But they also know his often grim wartime persona has obscured what they considered one of his most attractive characteristics: a generally buoyant, wisecracking personality that helped soften the edges of his conservative policy proposals.
There may be no going all the way back to the George W. Bush of 2000, given what has happened on his watch. Tuesday's major speeches -- those aired by the major broadcast networks -- barely reprised the compassionate conservative agenda that was at the heart of that campaign -- but which has been largely subsumed by a focus on terrorism.
War, terrorism and national security now form the core priorities of Bush's presidency, and it was first lady Laura Bush's role to tell the country that although her husband may be tough and resolute, he is neither indifferent nor uncaring as he has led the country into war. If war has transformed his presidency, she was there to offer testimony that it has not fundamentally changed Bush. He is, she said, the same man she met many years ago at a backyard barbecue in Midland, Tex.
The first lady spoke of dinner-table conversations on the road to war, of overheard conversations with foreign leaders and of watching her husband from a White House window as he walked across the White House lawn, agonizing. "He's a loving man with a big heart," the first lady said in remarks prepared for delivery. "I've seen tears as he has hugged families who've lost loved ones. I've seen him return the salute of soldiers wounded in battle."
The president has turned regularly to his wife in this campaign to soften the edges of his presidency. She appeared in the first ad of the campaign. She has crisscrossed the country on his behalf, and when the campaign put up a new ad recently about the war on terrorism, she was once again at his side on the screen as he talked about the anguish of parents worrying about their children on the day America was attacked almost three years ago. She has helped to provide what he often cannot.
Reaching out
Bush also turned to one of the party's newest stars, who wasn't even in office when he launched the war against Iraq, to help shape the public's view of his presidency. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger described himself as embodying not just the American Dream but also the big-tent Republican Party that Bush has helped to construct.
Reaching out to Americans who may have doubts about the party, particularly its conservative social positions with which he disagrees, Schwarzenegger said, "Maybe, just maybe, you don't agree with this party on every single issue. I say to you tonight, I believe that's not only okay, that's what's great about this country. Here we can respectfully disagree and still be patriotic, still be American and still be good Republicans."
In an interview, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie talked about the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks on the public image of the president. "Obviously, the attacks of September 11 changed the nature of this presidency overnight," Gillespie said. "I've said before the president is seen often in settings that don't remind us of [that] he's not just a good president, he's a good guy, and it helps to remind people of that sometimes.. . . . I think it is important to reinforce that element of his personality and also that aspect of his agenda."
In the same way that the war on terrorism may have changed the way Americans see the president, so too has it obscured his compassionate conservative agenda. Bush, said campaign communications director Nicolle Devenish, feels compelled to update Americans on the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism and that, as a result, they may have lost sight of that agenda.
"They might not have fresh in their minds some of the elements of the compassion agenda," she said. "It's been crowded and probably eclipsed. . . . It [war] has made the compassionate agenda, the domestic agenda, something that people have not focused on."
'Not clear what it means'
Bush's critics suggest there was less to compassionate conservatism than the president suggested in his 2000 campaign. Bruce Reed, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said Bush used compassionate conservatism in 2000 to suggest he was no disciple of former House speaker Newt Gingrich's brand of Republicanism, but Reed argued that compassion quickly disappeared and conservatism came to the fore in Bush's administration.
"It's no surprise that they're bringing 'compassionate' out of its undisclosed secure location for the convention," he said, "but it's not clear what it means anymore."
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken their toll on that compassionate conservative agenda, but so, too, have some of Bush's domestic priorities Bush's compassion agenda included education accountability, and the No Child Left Behind legislation was approved early in his first term. But that has become embroiled in debate over funding and regulations. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige said Tuesday Bush "always had a compassionate vision for education," but the president has talked far less about that subject in this campaign than last.
His tax cuts, which have been generous to the wealthiest Americans, have caused many to question whether his compassion extends to those closer to the bottom of the economic ladder, according to Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center. "They look at many policies, especially his tax cut, as something that really isn't designed for them," he said.
Bush's advisers say the compassion agenda extends from economic and education policy to the president's support for federal aid to religious-based social service programs to expanded access to health care and prescription drugs. Tuesday's cast of supporting speakers, which included Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) and Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), sought to highlight Bush's accomplishments and emphasize his continuing commitment to those principles in a second term.
Public impressions of Bush's compassion have ebbed and flowed throughout his four years in office, reaching their peak in early 2002 as he remained in the glow of support after the Sept. 11 attacks. Now, only four in 10 Americans say they believe he has governed compassionately, according to a NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll. If the public began with optimism about his compassionate conservatism, much of that has dissipated.
Tuesday's convention program reinforced the reality that Bush's advisers know his political future is tethered in significant ways to terrorism, Iraq and national security. But if elements of the president's 2000 agenda play a reduced role in his White House priorities, his advisers know the political benefits, particularly among swing voters, of reminding voters of what they found appealing about his candidacy four years ago.
Whether he can do that as a wartime president -- even with the kind of support he received from his wife and others on Tuesday -- is an unanswered question.
