Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Bush Wins Approval So Far

Aired May 02, 2001 - 11:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And let's look to that future now with CNN's Washington bureau chief, Frank Sesno. No secrets that the real tests for this administration lie ahead.

FRANK SESNO, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, the great irony, of course, Jeanne, in all of this is when the Bush team first came in they said: Quit this 100-day talk. That's a media-marker -- the president actually called it that the other day. And what really counts is the 180-day mark, that is, to say, into the August recess.

MESERVE: And they're right.

SESNO: Well, they are. In fact, we're going to see whether it's education, taxes, the budget -- the key battles over how your tax dollars are spent, determined over the course of the next 100 days, or so. And that's what people will judge.

MESERVE: The success and failure will not just be a reflection of the Bush administration, however. It also will be a reflection of Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress.

SESNO: Well, the Democrats have some political opportunities and some political challenges. Talking to some pollsters around town, for example, they point out that the Democrats took a risk by saying: In the first 100 days, George Bush got nothing accomplished.

Because in fact, that sets him up that if he does get something accomplished in the second 100 days, he fulfills his own prophecy and crosses the Democrats.

MESERVE: And what else does the polling show us? Is George W. Bush well-positioned now to accomplish some of the things he's set out to do?

SESNO: Well, I was talking with Ed Goeas just a short time ago with the Tarrance Group. He oversaw the battleground poll, that's a bipartisan poll that came out not too long ago. It shows pretty high job approval, 58 percent job approval for the president. Sixty-eight personal approval, that's very interesting. A couple things Goeas said that I thought was remarkable, and that is, in the verbatims -- that is, the transcripts of the people they polled and talked to, they acknowledged: Hey, these are early days.

So their approval, while positive, is premised on the fact that the results are not fully in. But they cited certain things, according to Goeas, the integrity, that the president has chosen good advisers, that he's got a steady hand, that he's going slow. Goeas takes that as positive signs for the administration, opportunity for them in days to come.

MESERVE: Some of the things he's going to have to do in the near future will have a long-lasting impact. One of them, replacing Louis Freeh as head of the FBI.

SESNO: Again, now you're starting to see in the second 100 days how this becomes Bush's world as opposed to Clinton's world. Second 100 days, it's not Clinton's economy anymore, it Bush's economy. Second 100 days, it's not enough to be un-Clinton, he's got to be Bush.

Second 100 days, not only is it the cabinet, but a guy like Louis Freeh, FBI director, a 10-year term departs. Who he replaces the FBI director with goes beyond, arguably, George W. Bush's term. That's an imprint. That's an imprimatur. That's what people are going to use also, to judge his personality.

You know, that was a great piece by Major Garrett. That's the cabinet side. But there are others -- Supreme Court nominations, those will undoubtedly -- are likely to open up in the years to come as well.

MESERVE: Frank Sesno, Washington bureau chief, thanks a lot. We'll bring you back at the 180-day mark.

SESNO: We'll see you then.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com