Channels, Fall 2018

Channels • 2018 • Volume 3 • Number 1 Page 83 (Freidel and Sidney, 2009). Domestically, Bush signed into law broad tax cuts, the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Medicare expansion for seniors, and began the presidential initiative PEPFAR, aimed at addressing the global health crisis of HIV\AIDS (Greenstein, 2009). During the 2004 presidential election, Bush won a second term by defeating John Kerry in another close election. After his re-election campaign, Bush faced significant criticism and low approval ratings during his second term for his role in beginning the war in Iraq. In December 2007 as his presidency was coming to a close, the United States entered a long recession, often referred to as the "Great Recession," that prompted the Bush administration to pass a number of economic programs intended to preserve the country's financial system. Organizational Capacity - Bush Many scholars predicted that Bush would organize his White House in the hierarchical model that he was exposed to during his father's administration (Walcott and Hult, 2003). However, the central inspiration for Bush's White House organization was not his father, or even Ford or Nixon. Instead, Bush harkened back to the "troika" model of the Reagan administration by installing two trusted advisors—Karen Hughes and Karl Rove—as equals to his COS, Andrew Card. It speaks well to Bush's organizational capacity that he launched his presidency with an impressively seasoned team of senior staffers. Bush's White House was, from the beginning, "well-disciplined, tightly organized, and extremely efficient" (Edwards and Wayne, 2003). As the first president with a M.B.A., Bush ran his White House like the CEO of an organization. Andrew Card as COS Choosing Card. Andrew Card Jr. was a close friend of the Bush family for nearly a quarter century and a former deputy COS in the G.H.W. Bush administration. Many scholars approved of the selection of Card as COS, particularly during the presidential transition, because of the significant White House and Washington experience that demanded the respect of many Beltway insiders (Ferguson, 2001; Cohen, 2002). Office of COS under Card. Card was, arguably, the most prepared COS in modern history, having worked for seven previous White House chiefs of staff. He was organized and efficient, and he knew the interworkings of the White House. In a Bush White House, tempered by intimate political insiders such as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, Card was even-keeled and steady-tempered in a way that balanced the egos of the staffers and provided balance for the president. Card was a constant presence in the Bush White House, in the room during nearly all significant policy discussion, including those relating to national security and foreign policy post 9-11 (McClellan, 2008). Card is widely viewed as providing much-needed experience, knowledge, and organizational skill to the G.W. Bush administration to produce a White House free of the organizational blunders so prevalent at the beginning of most early administrations (Cohen, 2002). The two main roles of COS that Card embodied were that of administrator and guardian. In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor , Card explained, "There is only one power center—and it's in the Oval Office" (Kieferand and McLaughlin, 2001). Card was truly an extension of his boss. While his role of guardian was slightly complicated by the presence of other senior staffers who had access to the Oval Office (Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Dick Cheney, etc.), Card