Donald F. Kettl - Team Bush: leadership lessons from the Bush White House

This stuff about transformed? From my perspective, he is the same President Bush that I saw going through different issues in Texas. Hes always been decisive, hes always been disciplined, hes always been really focused, hes always been a really good delegator.

Karen Hughes, on the change in President Bush after September 11

Throughout his career as a political executive, George W. Bush has consistently exceeded expectations. Doing it once or twice might be lucky. Doing it over and over has to require real skill.

Whats the secret? Bush has carefully honed a style, based on building an effective team, to make strong decisions. He doesnt try to master the complexities of decisions. Rather, he builds a team, he makes them master the complexities, he has them frame the issuesand then he decides, firmly and without second thoughts. Hes ridden this style, over and over, to successes that have amazed his friends and stunned his foes.

Consider a quick scorecard. Few analysts gave him a chance of unseating Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1994, yet he beat her in the race. Political handicappers gave him slim odds for a successful gubernatorial term, but he rolled to a huge victory in 1998. He explored a presidential run, but cynics suggested he wasnt nearly smart enough to be the nations chief executive. When he won the nomination, Democrats relished the idea of Al Gore taking him on.

One Republican insider, in fact, quietly whispered that watching Bush debate was like watching his 12-month-old daughter try to walk, never knowing when she might fall on her face.

Bush astounded everyone by holding his own against the vice president. He rode his debate performance to a razor-thin presidential victory. When he got to Washington, insiders discounted the chance that he could accomplish anything. Most Americans doubted that Bush and congressional Democrats could put politics aside to work together. But he cobbled together enough votes to pass a big, 10-year tax cut.

Even his friends were worried about how ready hed be to make foreign policy decisions. During the campaign, BBC News asked bluntly, Can nice guy George Junior shed his image as a political lightweight and demonstrate that hes made of steel? Has he got what it takes for one of the most powerful jobs in the world?

But in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Bush rallied the country. When he threatened the Taliban in Afghanistan, skeptics pointed to the Russians devastating defeat in their own war with that country. Analysts warned that Bushs plan might draw the United States into another Vietnam. Bush attacked anyway. Within weeks the Taliban crumbled. Bushs approval rating soared to the highest level ever recorded.

Democrats reassured themselves with the fact that the presidents party almost always loses seats in the midterm congressional elections. They thought they could keep control of the Senate and dreamed of retaking the House. Bush launched a whirlwind last-week salvo of campaigning. Republicans not only retained control of the House in 2002 but retook the Senate. Bush yet again exceeded expectations. In the process, he solidified his position. He worked to capitalize on his strength by launching an economic stimulus plan, seeking to disarm Saddam Hussein, and countering North Koreas threats to destabilize Asia.

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the clear consensus was that the world had fundamentally changed. In a stirring editorial, the New York Times said, It was, in fact, one of those moments in which history splits, and we define the world as before and after. The sudden, awesome impact of the terrorists attacks fundamentally transformed everything about the country and its role in the world.

If the world had changed, the striking thing is that Bush had not. He was the same man, with the same style, as he had been as Texas governor. He had a strong sense of confidence, a vision of what ought to be done, and a determination to do the job right. He focused on the big picture with a decide-and-delegate style torn from the pages of MBA casebooks. He didnt devise a new style to deal with the unimaginable catastrophe. He put to work the style he had developed throughout his life and had honed as Texas governor.