The First MBA President: George W. Bush as Public Administrator

Abstract

President Bush was praised early in his first term as a tough‐minded decision maker who knows how to get things done. This essay argues that President Bush possesses formidable political skills that have helped him achieve many of his policy goals, focusing on his most important national security policies: the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism and the treatment of detainees, the use of intelligence leading up to the war, and the reorganization of the executive branch. In the end, however, President Bush’s deficiencies as a public administrator have undermined his policy successes.

George Tenet and the Last Great Days of the CIA

“…Meanwhile, a senior CIA official threatened to resign after the National Security Council pressured her to confirm that Saddam had collaborated with al‐Qaeda. She refused to rewrite her report, and Tenet defended her with a tirade of f‐words aimed at White House staffers (Pfiffner 2007a, 14; Suskind 2006, 191).…”

“…But during the Iraq War buildup, he no longer served primarily as an honest broker of hard intelligence but instead allowed himself to be swept up in the politics of the day. According to one CIA official, he helped the administration use intelligence “not to inform decision making, but to justify a decision already made” (Pfiffner 2007a, 14).…”

“…The agency also argued that disbanding the army would drive thousands of Iraqis into the ranks of the insurgents. Unfortunately, the CIA’s credibility had been seriously weakened, and some high‐level officials, particularly Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, believed the agency was too cautious and not aggressive enough for the war on terror (Pfiffner 2007a, 15). Bremer, supported by the vice president and Defense Department, ignored the CIA’s objections (Tenet 2007, 428).…”

George W. Bush: Becoming the Politician

“…Такой подход предполагал ограниченность круга лиц, причаст-ных к процессу принятия решений и исключение утечек информации. Работа настроенной Бушем системы отличалась скоростью, секретностью и вертикальным контролем 25 .…”

Appointee–Careerist Relations in the Presidential Transition of 2008‐2009

“…The Heritage Foundation often referred to Bush administration policies as emanating “straight from the Heritage playbook” (e.g., http://www.heritage.org/~/media/Financial%20PDFs/39932_1.ashx [accessed July 14, 2014]). In fact, one of the report's coauthors (Nesterczuk) was appointed “to oversee the design and implementation of the National Security Personnel System” (Durant, Stazyk, and Resh, , 396) that brought about a vast “reduction of Title V coverage for U. S. civilian personnel” (Pfiffner, , 7).…”