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American Morning

The Challenging Year Of President Bush

Aired January 01, 2002 - 07:25   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is no training course for becoming president of the United States. Even vice presidents say that being number two didn't really prepare them for the demands of the Oval Office. So even in ordinary times, President Bush could be expected to have a challenging first year. But these times are anything but ordinary.

CNN's John King takes a look back at an event filled first year of the Bush presidency.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It all changed with this whisper.

ANDREW CARD, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We knew that America was under attack and I very quickly moved into making sure that the president had all of his abilities to perform the functions of a president.

KING: A little more than 100 days later, still more questions than answers.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It may happen tomorrow. It may happen in a month. It may happen in a year. But he is he is going to be brought to justice. He's on the run.

KING: An elusive enemy, a war of uncertain scope and duration, new threats here at home, and recession, only adds to the challenge of a presidency transformed by September 11.

KEN DUBERSTEIN, FORMER REAGAN CHIEF OF STAFF: That has forever changed the outlook not only for the first year, but for all the years. He has become a wartime president, like FDR.

KING: A president who came to office amid controversy gets high marks for crisis management. Eighty-two percent of Americans in a year end CNN/"Time" poll approve of the way Mr. Bush is handling his job as president. Seventy-nine percent say he is a strong and decisive leader.

STANLEY GREENBERG, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: There are some other, you know, big issues, big doubts that are still on the table, but they're not relevant at the moment. KING: At the moment, the American people see eye to eye with their president on the mission.

BILL MCINTURFF, GOP POLLSTER: People in this country want to see Osama Bin Laden either captured or dead. Then when you ask people, look, the Taliban has been eradicated from Afghanistan, they are all in retreat, is this a, we, is this a "victory?" the answer is no.

KING: One major Bush challenge is sustaining that support.

KAREN HUGHES, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Every time I talk with him, he reminds me we've got, we're in a, we have to educate people that this is a different kind of war, that it's fought on a lot of different fronts, that it's not the kind of war they're accustomed to. And so that's been, he's been conveying that to me almost every time we meet. And we do meet every day.

KING: The changes go beyond less sleep and more gray. The National Security Council meets almost every day. And the wartime routine includes a weekly meeting with congressional leaders. But he is still a president who prefers handshakes to treaties and whose tongue has a decidedly Texas flavor.

BUSH: There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said "Wanted: Dead Or Alive."

DUBERSTEIN: A lot of people turned their nose up to it said that wasn't elegant way. But you know something? It communicated to everybody in America and the world his steely personality.

KING: There are parallels to the first President Bush.

GREENBERG: Almost all those doubts, you know, center on, you know, is he, how is he going handle the economy? Is he going to be for the average person?

KING: Consider it a lesson learned. This President Bush is well aware it could be the economy that matters most by the time he faces reelection.

BUSH: The long-term solution is more jobs.

KING: That debate will carry over to the new year, along with the many other challenges facing a president and a presidency redefined on an unforgettable September morning.

John King, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

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