White House Week
Finding His Voice as Consoler to the Nation
Even Democrats were impressed with President Bush's visit to Virginia Tech last week-only a day after the mass murders that captured the nation's attention. Bush went to the site of the shootings to help console the VT community and serve as what the Washington Post called "consoler in chief." Even hardened politicos say the president did well. "Bush was wise to go," said one prominent Democratic strategist. His take: Bush showed genuine sympathy and was very supportive of the campus community. Perhaps more important, the visit demonstrated that the White House is still capable of fast action, which impressed those critical of Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina. Still, the trip is unlikely to boost the public's assessment of him. "People no longer feel that he's a 'uniter,' and his visit won't alter that," the Democrat said.
Staying the Course Toward Shipwreck
Pollster Stan Greenberg says that President Bush's arguments in favor of his Iraq policy have been effective only with conservatives so far, not with a wider audience of Americans. Only 35 percent of the voters support his "surge" of extra troops into Iraq-mainly conservatives, Greenberg says. "He's lost the country on that," adds the Democratic pollster. "Now it's all about the base." Greenberg believes that because Republicans are "walking the plank" for the president on Iraq, this makes them vulnerable in 2008. But the situation also presents difficult challenges for the Democrats, because Americans understand the dangerous consequences of withdrawal. But, says the pollster, if the United States is still in Iraq on Election Day 2008, "it will be a very big win for the Democrats, a tsunami."
But Is It Good for the Sisterhood?
Buried in the latest numbers from a recent ABC/Washington Post poll is one that is causing a bit of heartburn for Hillary Clinton's allies. The new poll finds that 53 percent of Americans approve of the way House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is handling her job-quite a high number, considering how skeptical voters are of Congress no matter who is in control. (President Bush's approval rating is 35 percent, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's is 46.) Having the first female speaker of the House strikes many Democrats, including professional women who are at the core of Clinton's support, as an important development. But, says a former adviser to Bill Clinton, "it removes some of the 'first-ness' of a woman being president."
An Anticorruption Campaign, Backfired
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz was hanging tough at week's end in the face of growing internal criticism over his management style and his role in giving a raise and promotion to a female companion. "He doesn't strike me as a guy who resigns easily," says one bank insider. "He feels he hasn't done anything wrong." Few at the bank expect its 24-member board-which met Thursday to discuss his future-to run him out. But many bank employees think it's high time for the White House to tell Wolfowitz, as one staffer put it, "to get on his bike" and leave. And some insiders say his highly publicized campaign to root out corruption in Third World countries, opposed by some board members, is likely to suffer if he survives the current firestorm.
PHOTO OP: 11:15 a.m., April 16, East Room of the White House
Hammering the Democrats for attaching strings-like a timetable for bringing the troops home-to his supplemental war-funding bill was one of President Bush 's main acts last week. Here, on Monday, he waves to members of military families who stood by him during his remarks. With no compromise in sight, a signed bill seems months away.
With Kenneth T. Walsh and Edward T. Pound
This story appears in the April 30, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.