Bush, Like Clinton, Fails in Public Sphere

September 4, 2005

This op-ed appeared Sept. 4 in the Gainesville Sun.

By: Richard Scher
Richard K. Scher is a professor of political science at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

The Bush Administration is in serious trouble. Mr. Bush’s approval ratings are the lowest of any second-term president within memory, and continue to fall. Popular support for his Iraqi war has eroded substantially, and a large majority of Americans now think it was a mistake. Even within the past week, prominent members of Bush’s own party began publicly questioning the war, running way from it — and him.

Although the news from Iraq gets most of the blame, it is not the only cause of Bush’s falling numbers. Instead, Bush, like Bill Clinton before him, has allowed his sense of entitled privacy to overwhelm his awareness of public responsibility. Both failed to grasp that as presidents, they are first and foremost Public Men. By ignoring this vital role, they compromised their administrations and sowed the seeds for their fall.

What is a Public Man or Public Woman? They are individuals who understand that their position in public service involves both a mantle and a set of responsibilities. Mantle, because their position is one of gravitas, symbolism, and public trust. Responsibilities, because their job requires constant attention to a set of tasks much larger than themselves. Most importantly, Public Men and Public Women undertake their positions knowing that they must set aside their own desires and ethical codes for the duration of their tenure — the mantle and responsibilities of their position are such that they can never be avoided or allowed to rest. Public Men and Women are constantly on duty, at the ready, prepared to act on behalf of the public.

Bush’s long vacations in Texas don’t disqualify him from Public Man status. No one really begrudges a President time away from the White House. And most recent Presidents – Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan are all good examples – never forgot that they were Public Men. They were Presidents first, vacationers second.

The problem is that Bush puts himself before the mantle and responsibilities of the Presidency. This has never been more evident than during the President’s vacation. Explaining why he could not take a few minutes to meet with the antiwar activist and mother of slain soldier Cindy Sheehan, Bush said, “I think it’s also important for me to go on with my life … I’ve got a life to live and will do so.”

Public Men and Women do not say or believe such things. Aside from sounding like a whiney adolescent or a self-indulgent country-western song, Bush seems still to believe after nearly six years, it’s him that’s most important.

Does it matter when a president ceases to be a Public Man? Yes, if one wants a president who grasps the symbolism and gravity of his office and is willing to devote himself fully to its demands during his tenure. But the matter goes deeper. When a President forgets the mantle and responsibilities of being a Public Man, we end up with leaders like Ulysses Grant and Warren Harding, both of whom tolerated corruption in the White House. Harding even spent more time with his mistress than with affairs of state. We end up with Richard Nixon, who condoned a cheap burglary and engaged in a cover-up. Or we end up with Clinton, whose appetite for attractive women, and a young White House intern in particular, nearly brought down his administration.

When private codes of morality and self-gratifying behaviors replace public ethics and consciousness, the public becomes suspicious and wary. Their trust in the President – the well from which he derives his ability to govern – declines. The nation becomes divided not simply along partisan grounds, but between those who want the occupant removed from office and those who are just disgusted.

Indeed, it is exactly at this point that Bush and Grant, Harding, Nixon and Clinton are conjoined. In spite of Bush’s repeated attempts to claim the high moral ground, in fact his commitment to the mantle and responsibilities of the presidency appears no greater than any of these other flawed presidents. Does it matter that their lapses occurred in the White House while his came to the fore in Crawford? No, geography is irrelevant to the requirements of being a Public Man. Dwight Eisenhower was never out of touch with affairs of state, even when he was golfing in Augusta. Ronald Reagan always understood that he was first and foremost President as he rode horses and otherwise played cowboy on his California spread.

Thus being a Public Man or Woman is not simply a matter of putting the duties of the office ahead of one’s private life. It is a matter of understanding the ethics of a Public Persona: for the good of the nation and the vitality of our governmental institutions, one’s private morality and ethics must be put away for the duration. One wishes Bush would get it. If he fails, he can expect that his numbers, and more importantly his capacity to lead, to further decline.