Despite howls of protest from the most protestors since the Nixon presidency, George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States on Jan. 20.

After a viciously contested election in which Democratic candidate Al Gore won the popular vote by more than half a million votes but lost the all important Electoral College vote by four votes, Bush called for unity in a speech that was considered short by most political pundits at only 12 minutes. In the rain and fog and snow of Washington on Jan, 20, Bush made moderate overtures, discussing the need to listen to the poorest of the poor, and to not avoid the weary traveler on the road to Jericho, quoting from the Bible.

Some of what Bush said was layered in a thick, but unintentional, irony. He said that there are those who ‘doubt the promise – even the justice – of our own country.’ Nearby, nine protestors were arrested, objecting to what they called a flawed election system in amongst other charges made. Widespread voter fraud has been alleged, as well as serious voter disenfranchisement in Florida, a state where Bush won only after the United States Supreme Court overruled the Florida Supreme Court, who had declared that all votes in the state must be counted. The US Supreme Court made the controversial decision to overturn the Florida ruling because they felt that there wasn’t enough time left to count the votes, nor had strict, if any, standards been set about what votes were to be counted. Gore conceded the day after that decision.

However, he had fought a five week battle for the Presidency and while Bush now is the President, the Chicago Tribune and the Miami Herald are recounting votes under a Florida ‘Sunshine’ Law, a recount which some expect to show that, had recounts continued, Gore would have won.

Bush, for his part, doesn’t seem concerned with his loss in the popular vote, an election that, while described as ‘razor thin’ by news organizations, was actually only the third closest in the last forty years in terms of the vote of the people. Both Democrats won in those tight elections, with Jimmy Carter beating Gerald Ford in 1976 and John Kennedy beating Richard Nixon in 1960 – an election decided by fewer than 100,000 popular votes. All of that said, there’s little chance that the Bush-Gore contest of 2000 will ever be considered anything but the closest election in American history, if for no other reason than the outcome took five weeks to reach and came down to fewer than a 1,000 vote difference in Florida.

But while some liberals including Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman have suggested that Bush has no conservative mandate and should be held to that by both his own and the opposing party, Bush has acted swiftly on some somewhat conservative measures, immediately banning funding for family planning groups and abortions overseas, as well as pushing his entire $1.6 trillion dollar tax cut, a key plank in his campaign platform.

University of Massachusetts professor Vincent Moscardelli said that Bush doesn’t have a mandate.

‘He’s acting like he has a mandate when it would really be extremely difficult to argue that he does,’ Moscardelli said. ‘A president who gets 540,000 votes less than his opponent should be held to a higher standard in terms of what he does.’

Moscardelli said that while Ronald Reagan beat an incumbent soundly and was then able to push extremely conservative ideals, and while Clinton only won 43 percent of the vote in 1992, he won a sound Electoral victory, ‘This President didn’t do those things. For him not to reach out to the broad groups he talked about [in his speech] is surprising.’

The second year UMass professor contrasted Bush’s immediate policy moves against his speech, which he said was ‘entirely consistent with the image he tried to portray during the campaign. He talked about his issues, talked about the poorest of the poor and how we as a society can’t leave them behind.’

And while the speech was short, Moscardelli suggested that perhaps people had gotten used to Clinton who wasn’t, as the professor described, a ‘guy known for his self restraint.’ That said, he agreed with Bush left him speech open to be called fluff by critics.

‘He didn’t talk about specifics, and in fact seemed to avoid them,’ Moscardelli commented. However, some saw the speech as being a time for accessing the voters that felt disenfranchised, not establishing policy, something that both Moscardelli and George Sulzner, another UMass Political Science professor, felt the speech accomplished.

Sulzner, for his part, felt the speech was ‘succinct.’

‘It contained outreach, had Democratic themes, and really was a speech that Al Gore could have given,’ Sulzner said. He didn’t, however, comment on any of Bush’s moves soon after the inauguration though he did say that it isn’t unusual for an incoming President to rescind last minute executive orders from an exiting president.

As for the speech, Sulzner suggested that Bush didn’t discuss issues of mandate because, in the UMass professor’s opinion, Bush didn’t have one.

‘He tried to reach out and talk about general things, but not specifics,’ Sulzner said. ‘As for being slightly more conservative, that’s to be expected.’

He said that Americans would have to wait and see if there was going to be a serious divide between what was said in his speech versus what he actually does, and that what he wanted to do would be difficult. Sulzner said that Bush’s first proposals would face stiff opposition in Congress.

‘He may get a tax cut, but it will be less than he wanted, but again, it’s a matter that we’re going to have to wait and see about,’ Sulzner said, also theorizing that Bush may rely on executive orders to accomplish much of what he promised during the campaign.

Some of those promises included the continued Republican theme of devolution for the Federal government, the idea of returning power to state’s and, by proxy, people.

Laura Jensen, a UMass professor whose focus is state’s rights, said like Sulzner, that everything was going to be wait and see, but that at least some of his proposals focus more on centralizing power than actually distributing it.

‘Reviewing regulations on abortion is potentially centralizing. His proposals for the Federal role in education are centralizing, but can definitely be said about him at this point is that he’s no different from any of the other presidents we’ve had since Nixon,’ Jensen commented. ‘There’s a lot of rhetoric, but we’ll have to look more closely to see an actual policy record.’

Tidbits

While he might have received stiff opposition to at least two of his appointments, John Ashcroft for Attorney General and Gail Norton for Secretary of the Interior, Bush will likely see all of his cabinet picks approved by the Senate. Recent nominees Elaine Chao (who was selected after Linda Chavez withdrew her name for consideration as Secretary of Labor) and Colin Powell’s son Michael for the chairmanship of the FCC, still face questioning, but easy approval is expected.

Bush’s $1.3 trillion dollar tax cut is expected to end up more toward $1.6 trillion, sure to be a stumbling block for some senators and perhaps Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, although some have suggested that he may back just such a cut.

There is a showdown brewing between Bush and Arizona Senator John McCain over campaign finance reform. McCain said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that he wanted immediate debate on his joint measure with Russell Feingold of Wisconsin. Senate Speaker Trent Lott, who was dealt a blow in the battle when Thad Cochrane, Mississippi’s other Republican Senator, came out for campaign finance reform, wants to focus on Bush proposals first, then debate on campaign finance later. Bush seems to be ambivalent and stuck in a hard position – a majority of Americans, as well as the House of Representatives supports the bill, but signing such a law would seriously damage Re
publicans attempts to get elected. McCain has said if there is no debate, he will be forced to attach it as an amendment to every single piece of legislation that the Senate considers.

McCain has said that he doesn’t want to be forced to do that.