A job half-done

WASHINGTON, D.C. - When President George W. Bush sits down at his desk in the Oval Office and looks up and slightly to the left, his eyes meet those of Abraham Lincoln, staring out at him from his portrait on the wall. Surely the current occupant must occasionally think to himself that Lincoln was fortunate in having preceded the era of public opinion polls. He might even conclude that Lincoln and many others left the public sphere before history determined whether their presidencies were successes or failures.

For some time now, Bush has been directed by an inner compass, holding on to Lincoln or Harry Truman, presidents who gained the public's understanding and affection only through the perspective of time. Over the past year, Bush read a few books about the first president of the United States, George Washington. If he is still being written about today - over 200 years later - then perhaps Bush will also be written about, even argued over, hundreds of years down the road. By then, one can hope, the Middle East will also be different. Hard to believe, but - who knows? - maybe even better.

Bush's critics think that his inner compass is broken, its response to magnetic fields erratic, and the president gave up trying to convince them otherwise long ago. This was quite evident during a long conversation on Monday with Israeli journalists in the Oval Office. He appeared relaxed and spoke easily, but with an occasional flash of the Bush sarcasm, the sting of which his bitterest rivals have often felt. For example, when he spoke about those who would "much rather be judged by the latest Gallup poll than making the necessary decisions to keep the peace, to do the hard things now to confront the realities of the world." Or when he made a face when asked about the United Nations Security Council resolutions on Lebanon that have not been implemented.

When Bush addresses the Knesset tomorrow he will once again put forward his political credo. The hairs in the ears of a few sophisticated Israelis are sure to stand up, but Bush probably will not care about them either. Liberty, he believes, is a divine gift. In the absence of moral clarity, he will ask, what remains? In the course of Monday's long conversation - he sitting in his chair, his guests to either side on two sofas - he got up at one point and went to his desk to get the draft of the speech. He seemed happy about the speech, like someone who did not often have an opportunity to make his opinions known.

"There's no better place to talk about democracy and the history of democracies and the challenge of democracies in dealing with existential threats of terrorists and state-sponsored terrorists than in the Knesset," Bush said. If he thinks that a majority of Israelis appreciate this grave challenge - as well as appreciating Bush himself - he apparently is correct. According to a Gallup poll conducted last summer, 66 percent of Israelis are satisfied with the U.S. leadership - higher than any Western state and most non-Western states. Only in a few African countries was Bush's approval rating higher. It's no coincidence that the president has also visited that continent in the past several months.

Bush certainly merits criticism in a number of areas, but there's one thing nobody can take away from him: He comes to work every morning to work, to try to change the world, for the good. At the end of his term he will leave behind a job left uncompleted. The observer scrutinizing his actions will have to choose between two reasons: Either the policy was wrongheaded to begin with, or Bush's diagnosis was correct but eight years was simply not enough time to prove it. Half a job in Iraq, perhaps a quarter in Palestine and Lebanon, will be waiting for the next president. "I'm not checking out of here yet but I'm beginning to," Bush told the Israeli reporters on Monday, laughing.

In any event, earth-shaking changes do not take place within neat four- or eight-year time spans, in accordance with the U.S. political calendar. The American president who understands this and does not attempt to stuff impossible tasks into a tight time frame is better than one who thinks that what he cannot accomplish in his own term will never be accomplished. Bush is an example of the former, even if his secretary of state often seems to be inimical to the inexorable trickle of the sand in the hourglass. The Bill Clinton of the Camp David era represented the latter approach, an approach that Bush opposed at the time and to which he is even more opposed today. And so it is that Bush comes to his second and final visit to Israel as president with a sense of serenity about what he has done and about what he will not manage to do. This serenity is worth adopting: He will be followed by subsequent governments.