HIS DOMAIN President Bush in the Oval Office in early December
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When the race began for real last spring, Bush had the support of 91% of Republicans and 17% of Democrats. This was the biggest gap in the history of the Gallup poll, and it led journalists to write about the Polarizing President and armchair strategists to remind the White House of the First Rule of Politics: once your base gets you nominated, you have to soften the edges and sweet-talk the center to get elected. Bush had honored the rule by running in 2000 as a "compassionate conservative," which was code for "I'm not as mean as Newt Gingrich or Tom DeLay"; by working with Ted Kennedy on the No Child Left Behind Act; and by diluting any claim to fiscal conservatism with his support for prescription-drug benefits and a bloated farm bill. But it is a sign of Bush's political flexibility that, when it suits him, he can reject flexibility.
In his re-election year, far from becoming more accommodating, Bush seemed to do the reverse. In the summer of 2000 he delivered a bridge-building address to the N.A.A.C.P.; in the summer of 2004 he snubbed the organization. Two-thirds of Americans favored extension of the assault-weapons ban; in September he conspicuously let it die. He repeatedly offered swing voters expressly what they told pollsters they did not want: a multiyear commitment in Iraq, a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, Social Security private accounts, restricted federal funding of stem-cell research. The most he would do is hint that radioactive Attorney General John Ashcroft wouldn't make it to a second Bush presidency. But even at the height of the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal, Bush would not consider calls to dump Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "If you're wasting your time coming up with a way to recommend this, don't," he told a bunch of top aides in an Oval Office meeting. "And you make sure other people know this. This is absolutely the wrong time for this to be happening."
Most voters said they were looking for a change in direction, but Bush was betting that what they wanted more was leadership. Through it all, the one category in which he never fell behind John Kerry in the polls was being a strong leader. In dangerous times, courage is a currency, so while Kerry ran on his combat record, Bush, who didn't have one, suggested that the courage that matters most in a politician is the political kind. "The role of the President is not to follow the path of the latest polls," he told voters. "Whether you agree with me or not, you know where I stand, what I believe and where I'm going to lead. You cannot say that about my opponent." By taking a hard line on divisive issues, he made character--not his record--the issue.