Bush's 'Extraordinary Year'

His presidency began on a cold and rainy Saturday - with some Americans still questioning the validity of his election.

At the end of his first year in the White House, the presidency of George W. Bush had been re-defined by his response to the attacks of September 11.

One year ago, the nation was at peace and awash in federal surpluses.

A year later, Mr. Bush presides over a nation at war with terrorism and a government facing years of budget deficits.

The official line from the White House is that this has been a year of "results and progress." But in the wake of 9/11, it has also been - in the words of spokesman Ari Fleischer, "a year of challenge and defense of our freedoms."

The morning the world changed for America, Mr. Bush was at the Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida. It was there that he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center. He called it a "national tragedy" and vowed: "Terrorism against our nation will not stand."

In the coming days and weeks, Mr. Bush would demonstrate leadership skills some doubted he possessed. He would rally the nation behind him. His approval ratings would soar.

"The resolve of our great nation is being tested," he said on that first day. "But make no mistake: we will show the world that we will pass this test."

In an address to the nation that night, he would utter the words that the White House would later bill as the "Bush Doctrine." In vowing to bring those responsible for the attacks to justice, the President declared: "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

It was that assertion that was used to justify the start of military action October 7. The war was targeted not just at the al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan, but against the Taliban government there as well.

Again and again, Mr. Bush would warn the nation that the war would not be confined to Afghanistan and would not be over quickly.

On the day the battle was joined, he addressed the American people from the Treaty Room of the White House.

"We will not waver. We will not tire. We will not falter. And we will not fail."

The president also reached out to the world for support of what he called "a new type of war...a war against people who hate freedom." Since Sept. 11, Mr. Bush has met personally with nearly 80 foreign leaders, using each session to elicit whatever backing the other nation was willing to give.

Later this month, Mr. Bush will welcome the Hamid Karzai to the White House. He's head of the U.S.-backed Interim Government in Afghanistan. And he'll be the first Afghan leader to be received at the White House since King Mohammed Shah was the guest of John F. Kennedy in 1963.

While this president's first year in office will always be remembered for the events of Sept. 11 and his response to them, Mr. Bush lays claim to a number of domestic accomplishments.

Spokesman Ari Fleischer says the President takes "great pride" in the legislation enacted during his first year. Within five months of taking the oath of office, he signed into law a ten-year, $1.35-trillion tax cut bill. And just this month, he put his signature on the Education Reform Act he first called for on his fourth day in office.

Mr. Bush began his presidency with republicans in control of both chambers of Congress. But the political dynamics changed dramatically when Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont switched parties thereby transferring majority status in the Senate to the democrats.

The switch remains a key factor in Mr. Bush's failure to win enactment of a number of key elements of his domestic agenda. His unfinished business includes the Patient's Bill of Rights, his so-called Faith-Based Initiative and "fast-track authority" to negotiate foreign trade deals.

But as his first year in office came to end, Mr. Bush made clear he felt good about himself and his presidency. he called it "an extraordinary year."

"I'm real proud of how the administration and our government has responded to the attacks on America," he told reporters in the Oval Office late last month.

And as he begins his second year as president, he repeatedly says his "most important job of all is to protect the American people from further attack."

By Mark Knoller
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