In ways big and small, President Bush has modeled his political agenda and style on Ronald Reagan -- with some departures and sometimes very different results.
Bush, who will deliver a eulogy at the former president’s state funeral Friday, adopted Reagan’s trademark tax cut philosophy as the centerpiece of his domestic agenda and has taken a hard-line approach to potential foreign threats reminiscent of Reagan’s Cold War ways.
But Bush’s homage to the Republican icon extends to more subtle matters of style, analysts said, including his hands-off management approach, his public references to religion, his appreciation for retail politics and his efforts to put a more friendly face on his conservative ideology.
“I can’t think of another Republican leader who has made such a conscious effort to use Reagan as a model,” said Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas and a longtime Bush-watcher.
“What other Republican has modeled his administration this closely on Reagan?” he asked. “Not Bush the elder.”
In fact, from his zeal for tax cuts to his Western image, Bush’s presidential style has been a repudiation of the Eastern establishment ways of his father, who clashed with the party’s conservative wing during his presidency and reneged on a campaign pledge not to raise taxes.
Bush’s Democratic critics, however, say the former Texas governor has never developed Reagan’s pragmatic ability to compromise or adjust in the face of resistance or failure.
Hard to find middle ground
“I think that it’s fair to say that President Bush has attempted in some ways to model himself after President Reagan,” Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said, adding: “I think that this administration has a harder time finding middle ground and that half-loaf that President Reagan used to talk about.”
Some of Bush’s allegiance to Reagan is a reflection of the modern realities of Republican politics and the larger-than-life shadow the former president still casts over the party, analysts said.
“Nowadays, every Republican makes a conscious effort to touch the hem of Reagan’s garment,” said John Pitney, a political scientist at California’s Claremont McKenna College.
“Reagan laid out a path that a generation of Republicans have had to follow, and Bush has done it with some success,” he said. “Reagan’s legacy is complex enough that all Republicans can find some part of it they like.”
But most aspects of Reagan’s style are an easy fit for Bush. Like Reagan, he is comfortable with people and with the give and take of personal politics, and makes frequent references to faith and religion in his speeches.
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Like Reagan, also a former governor, he is not a policy wonk and prefers a chairman of the board approach that delegates responsibility. Like Reagan, Bush has chosen to pursue a limited, manageable policy agenda.
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Bush’s “compassionate conservative” label is a direct descendant of Reagan’s efforts to put a likable face on policies considered out of the mainstream when voiced by Republican Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election, analysts said.
Bush also consciously mimicked Reagan’s hard-line rhetoric toward the “evil empire” of the former Soviet Union when he referred to an “axis of evil” of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
The glib Gipper
But analysts said Reagan, known as the “Great Communicator,” had a much sharper gift for political rhetoric than the language-challenged Bush.
And unlike Bush, they said, Reagan frequently compromised or shifted gears. Known for his tax-cutting ways, Reagan signed on to tax increases during his second term. Credited for his hard-line on the Soviet Union, he initiated arms control accords.
When hundreds of U.S. troops were killed in suicide bombings during a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, Reagan quickly withdrew American forces.
Bush, on the other hand, has pushed to make his tax cuts permanent despite ballooning deficits and pursued the war in Iraq with what critics call a single-minded zeal.
“The irony is, Bush has pursued a Reaganite agenda but has achieved very different and very disappointing results,” said Stephen Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University, citing continued mayhem in Iraq and America’s damaged credibility around the world as examples.