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As 'CEO President,' Bush has fallen short

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published March 27, 2006

Armed with his Harvard MBA and love of free markets, George W. Bush entered the White House in 2000 fully embracing his newfound nickname: CEO President.

Here was a new U.S. president bound and determined to run the federal government as a chief executive officer would run a major corporation. With authority. With a sound strategy. With a bottom-line, no-nonsense style.

So what on earth happened?

If Bush were a real CEO of a real company, odds are good he would have been sent packing long ago. His promise of accountability and his assurance of a results-oriented presidency in a we-got-to-clean-up-Bill-Clinton's-sloppy-habits era never materialized.

Just the opposite. Viewed through the rigorous lens of a CEO, Bush in his White House years deserves poor grades.

That sounds harsh. No CEO has the extraordinary demands that befall all presidents. Especially presidents like Bush who, in short order, was confronted by a bursting of the technology bubble and stock market decline; a recession; the unprecedented terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; a high-profile era of corporate corruption and bankruptcies, and of course, a war in Iraq with no clear-cut end in sight.

Still, Bush liked the "can do" CEO metaphor and used it to his advantage for a while. Even now, he frequently relies on what in effect are political billboards to emphasize the theme of his speeches.

Last week in his remarks on the Iraq war, Bush stood before a huge banner that read: Plan for Victory. On May 1, 2003, he told sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego that "major combat operations" have ended in Iraq while a banner with Mission Accomplished waved in the background. On July 9, 2002, in a New York hotel ballroom before a Wall Street audience, Bush called for stiff new penalties for corporate criminals and a crackdown on boardroom scandals. Behind him loomed a screen adorned with the words: Corporate Responsibility.

Let's look at the Bush track record on a few of the nation's most critical economic issues, just as we might assess a CEO's performance:

THE BUDGET DEFICIT: Bush started in his term with a federal budget surplus. But he has spent federal dollars at an enormous rate, at the same time he has pushed aggressively for cuts in the very taxes intended to pay for federal spending. The result? A deep federal deficit, one so huge that Bush's second term will end long before the red ink will be addressed.

The sheer size of the Bush deficit prompted a nonpartisan group called the Concord Coalition to form and dedicate itself to publicizing the dangers of severe federal deficits. Bruce Bartlett, a syndicated columnist who worked in Ronald Reagan's White House and in George H.W. Bush's Treasury Department, was so incensed at George W. Bush's policies that he wrote the book, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. He suggests Bush's relentless tax cuts wil l trigger the "largest tax increase in American history" in a few years when a financial crisis refocuses attention on the deficit.

What's most upsetting is the financial mess created on Bush's watch must be cleaned up later by someone else.

Grade for financial accountability? F

SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM: Bush won a second term in 2004 and immediately set about using his newfound political capital to pitch Americans on a Social Security system overhaul and the merits of privatizing workers' retirement money. Bush committed time and prestige to a campaign that ultimately fizzled, even though Republicans control both houses of Congress.

Grade for salesmanship? D+

REWRITING THE TAX CODE: Bush was so intent on rewriting the federal tax code - presumably to simplify it - that he created the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. Last November, the panel sent Treasury Secretary John Snow a series of controversial reforms, including eliminating deductions for state and local taxes and limiting deductions for home mortgages. Many recommendations drew swift criticism from real estate and industry groups.

In October 2004, Snow visited the St. Petersburg Times to promote tax reform and said a task force is looking at "every tax from every angle."

This month, Snow repeated that the Bush administration wants to forge ahead with a major revamp of the tax code, but said there is no specific timetable for turning recommendations into policy proposals.

"I think it's awfully important to take the time that's necessary to really think this one through. There shouldn't be any rush to judgment here because what we're dealing with is so important," Snow said.

Welcome to the art of the stall.

Grade for follow-through and execution? C-

HURRICANE KATRINA: The storm cut a major gash in the Gulf coast and reduced much of New Orleans to rubble and mold. The federal response was weak. Promises were not kept. Lower-level managers in the federal government denied accountability.

Grade for failing to control a bureaucracy? D

DUBAI RUNNING U.S. PORT OPERATIONS: Here's a case where Bush was more in the right than his critics. But it did not matter in the end. When a Middle Eastern company called Dubai Ports World planned to buy a British firm that handled cargo operations at major U.S. ports, the backlash was immediate. Bush insisted that the Dubai company was not a cause for security concern, but he was overwhelmed by critics, many from his own political party.

Bush argued, to no avail, that Dubai was a state-owned company of the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally. Now the company is selling off its U.S. port operations to avoid further controversy.

Grade for leadership in uncertain times? C+

For Bush, the cruel twist of being called the CEO President upon entering the White House is that he never really was a successful chief executive officer of any private business. As author Ron Suskind wrote of Bush in a 2004 article in the New York Times magazine, it's more accurate to call Bush the MBA President.

"It's as if a 1975 graduate from Harvard Business School - one who had little chance to season theory with practice during the past few decades of change in corporate America - has simply been dropped into the most challenging management job in the world."

Hey, nobody said being CEO President would be easy. Especially in the hardest training ground on earth.

Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or 727 893-8405.

[Last modified March 25, 2006, 03:15:07]