President George W. Bush speaking at Johns Hopkins/SAIS on April 10, 2006
When asked by a student who he would support in the 2008 presidential race among the many Republican possibilities the president pointedly stated, “I am not through yet” but the 2008 contest will be “the most wide open race in a long time.” Bush said he “would let politics run its course. I will work. I am going to spend my time working hard. I want to sprint out of office.” The president gave a list of priorities that will keep him busy through the 2008 presidential campaign including finding an energy policy, working to fix Social Security and Medicare and working on immigration reform.
“I have a lot to do with the rest of my presidency and I am going to do my job as president,” he remarked.
Of course, the president will be totally tuned into the 2008 presidential race and will be trying as hard as he can to elect a Republican successor to keep his policies and initiatives alive. However, the president will not endorse a candidate until there is a definite winner in the primaries who is endorsed by the GOP National Convention. Then, the president will throw his weight behind the candidate who he hopes will succeed him.
The president’s popularity, at an all time low at this point, will most likely be higher towards the end of his presidency and his campaigning will be a significant factor for his successor.
The president told the audience that “I have a good antenna and can see how people are trending.” His current polls would disprove his “good antenna” theory but he does seem passionate about “spreading democracy, liberty and freedom around the world.” As he spoke of the many achievements he feels are being reached in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Bush went on to state that we “need to encourage liberty in the entire Middle East.”
Putting a good view on the recent election of the terrorist group Hamas in the Middle East Bush commented that this “is the final condemnation of the Arafat era.” But “we won’t deal with Hamas if they don’t recognize Israel.”
Speaking of the bravery of the Iraqi people in voting in chaotic situations he spoke forcefully of the need for the Iraqis to stop squabbling and immediately form a government.
The president remarked that “Iraqi leaders need to do their part now. Leaders need to come together to form a government. Condi delivered a message saying they need to form a new government.” So, in Iraq “the time has come for politicians to come together. It is critical to form a unity government. When the government is in place Iraqi freedom is winning and is a blow to the terrorists.”
While saying it is “wild speculation about us using force in Iran” the president strongly re-enforced his views that “We don’t want Iran to have the means or the knowledge to make nuclear weapons.” He did stress “we want a multilateral approach to Iran” and wants “Russia to be part of the team.”
The president commented that “I get protested all the time and protests don’t bother me (...) I hear the protests and I know why people are concerned about war.”
A number of the students at the speech were wearing small red signs on their chest saying “We do not support Bush” and on the other side were reasons ranging from the war in Iraq to his environmental policies. One student explained to me that they were being “respectively disruptive” by wearing the signs as a silent protest. Bush related that our “relationship is positive and complex with China” and said the “Chinese premier should make a statement on their currency.”
Speaking about Islam and terrorism, the president spoke out by telling the audience that “terrorists have hijacked the peaceful religion of Islam.” And talking about his desire to spread freedom and liberty and democracy he emphasized that “I am not telling other countries to act like us but telling them to be free.”
How does the president seem in person?
He is livelier and has more of a sense of humor than comes across from just watching him on a television screen. Bush seems to believe strongly in his concept of delivering democracy to the Middle East and the rest of the world and he is adamant about “using all assets to win the war on terror.”
Bush seems the exact opposite of former president Jimmy Carter who was almost too specific on any and all topics. The current president seems a bit vague, not on his concepts of freedom, liberty and democracy, which are like another president, Woodrow Wilson, but on the way he will actually put these concepts into practice. The president doesn’t seem to bring the audience along with him. It is almost as if he has his views and the audience can agree or not but he is not particularly interested in our views. It may be otherwise but this was my observation.
Bush seems quite friendly but he lacks the charisma of a Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. He can’t help that-some people have charisma and others don’t- but it seems as if, at times, he almost enjoys getting an audience riled up against him.
Most of the students were happy to have the president of the United States at our school but after the speech many said they felt let down because they heard nothing new. I felt that way after Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld spoke here last December. He also said nothing very newsworthy.
I asked the Secretary of Defense why we had not caught Osama bin Laden yet and he said “we are working on it.” I would have liked to have asked the president if he feels his two terms in will be a failure if he hasn’t captured bin Laden before he leaves office in January, 2009. Shouldn’t capturing this mass murderer still be our number one priority?
But for a man who gives a speech or two a day he seems a little ill at ease up on the stage. Many times he remarked to a student asking a question that that was a good question and he would ask the Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense what they thought the answer might be. Whether or not he didn’t know the answer or was merely deflecting the question remains to be seen.
However, the president of the United States actually went into the audience after his speech and asked a student who had asked him a question for their email address and would get back to them with an answer. I was impressed that he would take the time to make that gesture.
Even if you didn’t like the president’s remarks or share his ideology, Bush commented that coming to see him was a good “reason to skip class.” | 
