Read My Hips

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Another danger was that Bush's performance would rattle the confidence of allies in the anti-Saddam coalition and strengthen the Iraqi leader's resolve against an enemy he perceived as wounded. So far the European and Arab leaders in the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq believe that the President's domestic problems have little effect on his conduct of foreign policy. Bush's advisers insist that there is a "fire wall" between domestic and foreign policy, not only in the President's thinking but also in that of the Congress and the public.

So why has Bush inflicted so much unnecessary damage on himself? Part of the answer is that he has never had firm convictions on domestic issues; over the years he has altered his stance on abortion, civil rights and even supply-side economics when it was politically expedient to do so. Bush has always regarded domestic policy as "deep doo-doo," not to be stepped in if at all possible. Foreign affairs, on the other hand, he regards as his strongest suit. As Bush acknowledged at a White House press conference last week, "When you get a problem with the complexities that the Middle East has now, and the gulf has now, I enjoy trying to put the coalition together and keep it together. . . . I can't say I just rejoice every time I go up and talk to ((House Ways and Means chairman Dan)) Rostenkowski about what he's going to do on taxes."

Any President faces fewer constraints in foreign policy than at home, and many have been known to seek solace from the slings and arrows of homegrown politics in its embrace. But what particularly drags Bush down in domestic policy is the limits of his leadership style and the key lieutenants on whom he relies.

Bush's patrician approach -- gradually building trust among other members of an elite and cutting private deals with them -- has often worked effectively on the foreign front. But it does not deliver as well in domestic policy, where myriad officials, interest groups and ordinary citizens demand to have their say, both before any proposed solution is made public and afterward. When Bush tries to communicate with a TV audience, he often lacks confidence. More important, except when he is campaigning for himself, Bush shrinks from framing options in a stark and persuasive manner that can force people to make a choice. He often speaks of using the "bully pulpit" to get his way, but to him it means little more than "telling people how deeply you feel" instead of knocking heads together to get things done.

For more than a year Rostenkowski, one of Bush's closest friends in Congress, has pleaded with the President to "tell the American people that if we don't balance our budget, we're going to be No. 2 in the world, and the American people will say 'The hell we are!' If you challenge them, they will accept whatever sacrifice you say is necessary."

Bush was unmoved by Rostenkowski's appeal, as he was last month when some advisers urged him to forcefully exploit the crisis in the gulf as an opportunity to make progress on the budget. Bush did give a televised speech linking the two problems, but rather than call on all Americans to sacrifice, he proposed nearly $30 billion in new tax breaks and left the tough choices to Congress.