The 43rd president of the United States will leave the Oval Office in four days and leaves the nation in an unpopular war and a recession.

James McCormick, professor and chairman of the political science department, said President George W. Bush will be remembered by two events that also shaped his foreign policy – the Sept. 11 attacks and the War in Iraq.

The home front

Bush has had an approval rating ranging between the lower 90s to the upper 20s. He currently has a 24 percent approval rating, according to the most recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

“Approval was a lack of political skill on the administration’s part,” said Dirk Deam, senior lecturer in political science. “It was like nothing we’ve really seen in the presidency before. I’ve never really seen Bush look concerned about his legacy or how history will treat him.”

Deam said the downfall of the president was his inability to connect with the public as well as the administration’s lack of contact with other branches of government.

“Hurricane Katrina was not the first time the president and his people fouled up, it was just the first time it was apparent,” Deam said. “It showed that he was not the most well-connected to both the people and the government.”

A presidential administration is supposed to meet and communicate with the legislators, states, federal agencies and local governments, Deam said. However, this has not been seen often during the last eight years.

In addition, Deam said, the administration was clouded in secrecy. And while it is common in every presidential administration, Deam said it has been much more noticeable recently.

“The extreme secrecy here is quite unusual,” Deam said. “This and other policies all stem from being in a wartime period. There has been some disregard for the Constitution on his part.”

Deam said Bush’s approval rating would have been stronger had he been more fiscally responsible rather than running up the national deficit and alienating some members of his party.

“He needed more explanation in his policies and ideals,” Deam said. “He gave us [the wiretapping] but never explained why the old ways of collecting information was no good. Clarifying his policies and ideals would have really helped during his time in office.”

Ruth Powell, president of the ONE Campaign at Iowa State and junior in political science, said that while more money than in the past has been pledged to the developing world, there is room for more.

“The chance to really help was there during the eight years,” she said. “This is needed because it should reflect the government, which is a representation of the American people. It was a start but will likely been seen as only a model to build from.”

The ONE Campaign is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization striving to get the United States government to give more money to fight poverty and disease in the developing world.

Foreign policy

Richard Mansbach, professor of political science, said the world will breathe a sigh of relief when President Bush leaves office. However, he said the eight years were not a complete loss.

“Really in his last term, Bush began a change from unilateral policies,” he said. “While we had our Axis of Evil countries, we began to talk to them and involved other countries in those discussions.”

Mansbach said the United States’ tendency to worry about its own interests, which was common in the first years of the Bush administration, disappeared. A multilateral position that began with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helped the United States’ image and more cooperation occurred between the U.S. and its allies again.

Bush received sympathy after Sept. 11, Mansbach said, but the War in Iraq was a drawback because allies became alienated when it became clear the justification for the war was phony. The Abu Ghraib abuse was another big hit to the administration.

David Cunningham, assistant professor of political science, said the U.S. response to Darfur should have been stronger in order to maintain the situation early.

The lack of action in Darfur did not hurt U.S. relations with Africa, Cunningham said. However, the War in Iraq is unpopular with Africans.

“The U.S. response was a missed opportunity,” he said. “The U.S. could’ve applied more direct and intense pressure in the form of economic and financial terms.”

Bush proposed more than $15 billion to help fight against AIDS, malaria and poverty in Africa in 2003.

“He should be partly remembered for his aid to Africa because it was a change,” McCormick said.

Cunningham said that not much credit has been given to him for the work he has done for Africa even though the money given is more than any other president.

However, Cunningham said the administration’s position of teaching abstinence only as a means of AIDS prevention has decreased the effectiveness of prevention programs in countries such as Uganda.

Powell said several regions of the world were forgotten due to the international community and media’s concentration on the Middle East, Iraq and Russia.

“I, unfortunately, don’t think he will be remembered for the aid to the developing world,” Powell said. “I think it was overshadowed by other world events going on in Iraq, the Middle East and Afghanistan.”

Overall, Powell said it was a disappointing eight years. While Bush has done some good, Powell said, he could have done a lot more and led the way for improvements to be made on foreign aid.

In China, relation improvements stem from an earlier history between the two countries.

“The Bush Family had a record with China – the old Bush made a contribution to the earlier development of the American-Chinese relationship,” said Xiaoyuan Liu, professor of history. “I think Chinese scholars, when they discuss Chinese-American relationships in this period, they will have relatively high marks for Bush.”

Approval rating over the years

2001-62.5

2002-67.1

2003-60.8

2004-47.8

2005-42.2

2006-36.1

2007-31.4

2008-27.6

2009-24*

*All years averaged from polls from the year. In 2009, there has only been one poll.

** Highest approval: Sept. 21-25, 2001 – 86

   Lowest approval: Oct. 23-26 2008 – 22

-Information from Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey

Student’s thoughts on Bush

“It’s really a negative way to leave; I’m not going to remember him well. Most comments I hear are negative — I hear people are happy he’s leaving.” – Brooke Reinhart, freshman in early childhood education

“He’s a money waster — money spent on the war, him getting us in to this recession we are in — money spent in other ways that shouldn’t have been wasted.” – Brandon Lee, sophomore in open option — Liberal Arts and Sciences

“I’ll remember him for the ‘Bushisms’ that were printed in the paper and on the internet.” -Alex Skora, freshman in engineering

“For the most part, he’s been a good president. I don’t have a strong opinion; but most of the nation has a strong negative opinion and I mostly agree.” – Ryan Alliss, junior in meteorology

“The Iraq war. That’s the only thing I believe he’s done that has affected the country. It could be good or bad; I don’t think it’s good. I don’t think he’s done anything but sit there for the past eight years.” – Perrin Nixon, senior in hotel, restaurant and institution management

“He gave me the opportunity to go to Iraq.” – Jared Morford, senior in history

“I think a lot of people are going to think of him as going in to war without having an actual reason and uncertainty. The war is good in some ways, but we didn’t ask them if they wanted to democratize, so we kind of forced them to do it.” – Ben Titus, sophomore in open option — Liberal Arts and Sciences

“I know a lot of people who didn’t like him, but I’m a Christian and I know he stands firm on his beliefs. He has a lot of plans for schools that teach evolution to teach Christianity as well. I’ll remember him as a man who stands firmly on his beliefs.” – Peter Liu, freshman in kinesiology and health

“I think a lot of people are going to know him from the mistakes he has made, but maybe over time they’ll realize he didn’t mess up as bad. They’ll have more respect for him.”  – Liz Rieke, sophomore in dietetics – agriculture and life sciences

“The war — just the fact he was president when it started.” -Dean Oberly, senior in management

“I think that a lot of people think of him too critically because he says a lot of dumb things, but everybody does that. People are harder on him because he’s in the spotlight, and I think he has done good things too, like his stand against terrorism.” – Mallory Peters, freshman in elementary education

“I think people will remember Bush for 9/11 and for getting us into war            — a war that a lot of people don’t think we needed to fight.” – Erin Kelley, freshman in chemical engineering 

“Mostly for the War in Iraq, foreign policy and his gung ho attitude. It seemed like he acted more on his feelings than reason, which did not always turn out the greatest.” – Tim Pearson, junior in materials engineering

“I will remember him for going to war unprepared, with bad reasons, and killing a bunch of 18 and 19-year-olds and admitting there were no nuclear weapons there. He cheated a bunch of people out of  their lives and parents out of grandchildren. I will remember him for going in to war basically just to protect his dad’s legacy.” – Zach Heisler, freshman in pre-business

“Thank god it’s over. I’ll think of him as an ignorant puppet monkey, homophobic and racist.” – Christine Peterson, junior in child, adult and family services

“I’ll remember him mostly negatively because it’s hard to think of anything he has done that is positive, and the good things he has down are all overshadowed. I’ll remember him as tyrannical and not so smart.” – Janavi Kumar, junior in genetics