challenging
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ing a racing chariot. Are these horses so
strong that the charioteer will not be able
to control them?"
Our former president's popularity
could also make Bush's early days diffi
cult. Clinton left office with one of the
highest job approval ratings in history: 66
percent, according to a January 16 online
Gallup poll.
Plant said Clinton's prolonged farewell
likely upstaged Bush's arrival. "This
might have been the first ex-president who
got in the plane and told the pilot to circle
Washington for an hour and re-land."
"Clinton is not going away,"
Nechemias added. "He is a big fund-raiser
for the Democratic Party, and Hillary gives
him the perfect excuse to stay in
Washington."
The mainstream press has, in recent
weeks, called the new president part of a
family business or a modern political
dynasty. But the younger Bush will have
plenty of opportunity to put his own stamp
on our political culture. To be most effec
tive, Bresler said "Bush will have to work
hard to reach out to core Democrats, fem
inists and the heads of the labor and civil
rights movements. He must also work to
find common ground on economic issues
like a patient's bill of rights, prescription
drugs and the tax cut."
As the only openly pro-Bush panelist,
Bresler added that the president must work
hard to expand support among certain vot
ing groups, such as African-Americans, by
following up on his education reform
plans and making sure they work.
Nechemias believes Bush will have to
work equally hard if he hopes to gain sup
port among women. "If only men had
voted," she said, "Bush would have won
Florida 53 percent to 33 percent. Women
voted disproportionately for Gore."
She cited Bush's pro-life/abortion
stance as one reason women might be less
likely to favor him. Now that he is in
office, Nechemias thinks Bush will push
for legislation that could outlaw many
common forms of birth control.
Nechemias also thinks the new president
will focus less on women's health issues
and daycare than Clinton did. She also
believes the new administration will not
rigorously enforce Title IX legislation,
which guarantees gender equality in edu
cation.
Bresler agreed that Bush did have to
overcome a gender gap, but he pointed out
that the statistics used make a difference in
its size. He said that married women were
almost evenly divided between Bush and
Panel
Gore. The largest gap, said Bresler, came
between married men and single women.
Married men favored Bush by a 20 percent
margin; unmarried women supported Gore
by 31 percent.
But Nechemias said women are not the
only people who should be concerned
about Bush's presidency.
Environmentalists should be, too. She said
the president and his Interior Secretary
designate, Gale Norton, support opening
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to
drilling for oil and natural gas. She added
they want to do the same thing in the West,
using federal lands to develop the mining,
logging and oil industries.
Though the next four years might seem
especially worrisome for these groups,
Peterson raised an important counter argu-
"Remember
that
presidents
don't control
events,
agendas and
issues."
ment. "Remember that presidents don't
control events, agendas and issues," he
said. "Bush must reach out to Democrats
and Republicans in the House and the
Senate and try to develop positive working
relationships."
Followers of politics know that the
first 100 days of any presidential adminis
tration are typically considered a "honey
moon period." During this time, it is cru
cial for the new leader to make his mark.
Bush's ambitious agenda shows that he
plans to do just that.
During a recent interview on NBC's
Today Show, the president listed his top
three priorities for his first months in
office. First, he wants to reform education
by increasing student testing and offering
parents greater school choice. He also
wants to cut taxes by $1.6 trillion, and he
wants to boost military morale by paying
soldiers more.
"It's time to focus on issues that matter
to people," Bush said during the interview.
"It's time to focus on policy, not politics.
I'm going to do what I said, and I'm not
predicts
road for
Bush
going to abandon that philosophy."
While optimism and confidence may
help him, Nechemias said Bush's Cabinet
could work against him. "Clinton's
Cabinet looked like the face of America,"
she said. "Of the big four Cabinet posi
tions, those being Justice, State, Defense
and Treasury, this was the first time a
woman served in two of the four. Women
in Bush's Cabinet are not part of the big
four."
Bush did appoint a number of women
to his Cabinet, including National Security
Adviser Condoleeza Rice and Agriculture
Secretary Ann Veneman. But Nechemias
said their positions, though important,
have little connection to the women's
movement or to women's issues.
Furthermore, she said that Bush's original
choice for Interior Secretary, Linda
Chavez, called the glass ceiling "a figment
of women's imaginations."
This stands in marked contrast to
Clinton's Cabinet. To cite one other exam
ple of women playing key policy-making
roles, Nechemias chose Donna Shalala,
the former head of Health and Human
Services. Among other things, Shalala was
instrumental in making childhood immu
nizations universal.
Whatever hurdles Bush might have to
clear, Bresler said, "He has this going for
him: his opponents treat him as kind of a
cartoon character, so he has very low
expectations. But I think you all are going
to be fooled. I think what George W. and
the Republicans are going to try to do is
build a coalition that is basically center
right. It could peel off enough Democrats
in Congress and in the country that it could
build a government majority. It has to do
this by showing it can manage the econo
my well and tackle serious problems that
Clinton didn't and could have, such as
Social Security, Medicare and campaign
finance reform."
Karla West, an American studies major
who voted for Gore, said Bush must watch
his step and take care not to divide the
country, especially on issues related to
women and minorities. "He should tread
lightly with whatever he does in the first
100 days," she said.
Helen Decker, a communications
major who supported the president, said,
"Give Bush time. When someone new is
presented, we tend to make assumptions
about people based on press and media
reports. Wait and see."
While the panel is adopting a wait-and
see-attitude themselves, they may hold
another discussion later this spring to eval
uate Bush's first 100 days in the Oval
Office.