Democrat reviews the Bush team

I am a yellow-dog Democrat. In other words, even if the Democratic candidate were a yellow dog, I would vote for him just because he's left of center. While my politics are not far to the left, Republicans make my stomach turn. I am sure that you could not have found many people who were more against Bush in the 2000 elections than I. This is why it may surprise some of you that I think the Bush administration has done a good job handling the attacks on Afghanistan.

While I was in favor of the principle of retaliation after the terrorist attacks, I was uncertain of the Bush team's capability to make the right decisions. I felt that the most important aspect of executing retaliatory action would be building an international coalition of support for military action. Given Bush's previous record of isolating America from the rest of the world by pulling out of the Kyoto Treaty and forcing missile defense down the throats of Europeans, Russians and Chinese, I was not confident in his ability to reach out to the world on this issue either.

Bush's "seasoned" team of advisors did not hold my confidence either. One of the few that I might have given some consideration to was Secretary of State Colin Powell. Unfortunately for him, he is no longer in Bush's inner circle. As for the venerable Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld (who is the only person Henry Kissinger admits has bested him in a political battle), he is only a shell of his formerly radical conservative self. Granted, he is still radically conservative, but after Bush's tax cut, it fell to Rumsfeld to notify the armed forces that major cuts were in order due to a lack of revenue and this made him an unpopular and significantly less powerful actor in Washington. The other radical conservatives and Cold War veterans stuck in that long-since-ended era do not hold much water with me.

The Bush team, however, has come through so far. Bush's speech writer should be given a raise for the speech that Bush delivered on Sept. 20 to Congress and the nation. That rousing address did much to unite the country behind its leader in a time of crisis. The Bush insiders then set out uniting world support for American retaliatory action. NATO issued a statement of support citing the U.S.'s ability to prove that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks. The Bush team garnered support from Britain, France and others. The administration is now saying that "the allies" are carrying out the attacks on Afghanistan. This naming of the coalition that has been built by the U.S. is important in framing the attacks positively in the minds of the world. Just as his father's administration succeeded in building a coalition for the Gulf War, W.'s administration has succeeded.

My hope now is that the terrorist attacks will move the Bush administration more to the political center. These attacks have shown the impracticality of missile defense. Bush has proposed large subsidies for the ailing airline industry. Hopefully he will realize that further tax cuts to stimulate the similarly ailing economy will not leave enough cash left over. Bush has provided strong leadership in this time of crisis, something I did not think him capable of doing. Hopefully he will prove me wrong on my next doubt: his ability to lead the country after this crisis.