By Jerry Ridling
Special to THE DAILY

As American presidents’ terms draw to a close, they usually start thinking about their legacies. It is generally acknowledged that no political administration’s historical impact can be adequately evaluated until a few years have passed.

However, this seldom prevents friends or enemies of a president from publishing their own assessments much earlier in the process.

Thus a trickle of books has already begun appearing with evaluative commentary on the current administration of George W. Bush.

Thomas Oliphant, Washington correspondent for The Boston Globe, has written such an evaluation in “Utter Incompetents: Ego and Ideology in the Age of Bush.” The work is a well reasoned, carefully constructed indictment of the Bush administration as being perhaps the worst overall in American history.

Oliphant asserts that Bush and his cronies have made a mess of virtually everything they have touched. In chapter after chapter, he carefully examines this administration’s handling of a variety of issues from the war in Iraq and nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea, to domestic concerns such as the economy, health care and Social Security. On every point he gives a failing grade.

Oliphant says Bush inherited a surplus of $236 billion when he entered office. Within a year he had reversed that to a deficit of over $150 billion, and currently the national debt is in the trillions, the dollar the weakest it has been in modern times, energy prices at record levels, the trade deficit dangerously large, and average Americans struggling to make ends meet.

In the meantime, the nation’s richest 2 percent enjoy the benefits of huge tax advantages put into place at the president’s bidding, and ordinary taxpayers will be paying off the federal debt for generations to come.

As another example, the author points out that under Bill Clinton, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was professionalized. The appointed head was a person with actual experience in disaster response, who filled the agency with competent employees.

In a manner typical of the Bush approach to every governmental department, the president cleaned house, replacing FEMA staff with loyal political hacks supportive of his own conservative ideology, but without a clue in managing an actual disaster.

When FEMA was then incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security, it was even further weakened and its budget cut significantly. By the time Hurricane Katrina hit, the agency was under poor leadership, mired in the bureaucracy of a larger agency, out of touch with an indifferent president and hardly in a position to respond effectively.

Oliphant describes how the Bush administration has repeatedly placed short-term political gain and ideological purity above common sense and, what is worse, the ultimate good of the country.

He describes a president who is stubborn, blinded by his own prejudices, unwilling to listen to opposing viewpoints or engage in dialogue with any but his closest advisors, out of touch with the reality around him and adamant in his refusal to ever admit that he is wrong.

Coalitions

He points out that every president in modern times, whatever his rhetoric, has learned quickly that it is necessary to form coalitions with Congress, including the opposing party, in order to get things done.

The lone exception to this has been George W. Bush. Surrounded by his protective “bubble” of valued advisers, Bush has effectively shut out all others, and engaged in sometimes reckless policies without regard to their potential damage to even his own party and its future, much less the opposition.

The author concedes that the Bush administration has excelled in only one area. Its spin doctors have been able to put enough positive spin on even the worst foul-ups to buy the president time. They have been able to cleverly lie repeatedly to cover up misguided policies, botched opportunities, flagrant affronts to public sensitivity and stupidity in high places.

He says, however, that even the best public relations staff can do only so much, and the utter incompetence of the administration can no longer be hidden from public view.

Low-key style

Those who are familiar with the work of Tom Oliphant will not be surprised to learn the book is written in a low-key, dispassionate, journalistic style. While it obviously discusses profound issues about which the nation may be bitterly divided, the book never descends into cheap personal attacks or bitter recriminations.

The author simply offers his assessment of recent events and their meaning for the nation and its future.

The few hundred Americans who still believe the Bush administration is doing a fine job for the country will probably not want to read this book.

However, those who are genuinely interested in politics, and in the legacy of George W. Bush, will find this biased but honest assessment of his administration quite informative.

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