Former Speechwriter Frum On Why Bush Is 'Right Man'

David Frum was an odd choice for a White House speechwriter. For one thing, the Canadian-born writer wasn't even a U.S. citizen when he was hired in 2001. (He is now.)

In his 1994 book, "Dead Right," he criticized leaders for not being conservative enough. He left the White House last year a firm believer in President Bush.

Frum, who coined the phrase "axis of evil" in last year's State of the Union speech, spoke recently with IBD about his memoir, "The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush."

Frum: I mean the great question that was asked about George W. Bush in the 2000 election: Who was this guy? Could he do the job? My book is an attempt to answer that question: that he was the right man for the job.

Frum: He is very mentally quick. He can be very witty. His humor can be quite biting. He can be testy. He is much more relaxed when the cameras are not on him. He doesn't make the verbal mistakes.

Frum: The most surprising aspect about him is his air of command. I mean, you see him on TV and he seems to have an easy going and tentative air about him. But in person he is a commanding figure.

You can have no illusions that when Bush is in the room he is the one who is going to be making the hard decisions.

Frum: Bush is a much less ideological president than Ronald Reagan. He doesn't think in terms of left and right. His conservatism is much more a matter of gut instinct than it is a matter of finely worked-out ideology.

When he defends his tax cut, sometimes he'll use libertarian arguments. Sometimes he'll use Keynesian arguments. It can drive a lot of ideological conservatives crazy because he varies so much.

But his view is he believes in lower taxes because he thinks taxes should be lower. He'll use the explanations that seem good at the moment. He's not somebody who will insist on a strict ideological program.

IBD: How much of Bush's thinking and decisions are influenced by polls and public opinion?

Frum: Public opinion figures in a lot. The president has to be aware of where the public is.

On polls, though, this guy is an amazing risk-taker politically. Look at what he's doing now. He's not only got this big tax reform program, but he's also going to tackle Medicare. Now why is he going to do that? Not because the polls tell him to do it. The polls tell him to keep away.

Frum: Religion is central both to this White House and to this president. He is a deeply religious man. It matters a lot to him.

IBD: How aware is Bush of how he is perceived? Does he watch "Saturday Night Live" parodies?

Frum: He's quite aware of it. He's got a good sense of humor. He's somebody who just does not let things bother him.

IBD: Is there ever any self-doubt with the president? Or when he makes up his mind, is that it?

Frum: I don't know whether he ever feels self-doubt. What I do know is that he is very good at never showing self-doubt.

Frum: He can be quite unpredictable. With Ronald Reagan, you had a pretty good idea of what he would do and what he wouldn't do. Bush has principles, for sure. But it is much harder for people who don't know his mind to predict. You cannot read (F.A. Hayek's) "The Road to Serfdom" and know what Bush will do.

IBD: You say Bush's teetotaling is a more important part of his outlook than people realize.

Frum: Bush is a man of ferocious self-discipline. He is in amazing physical condition. His eating regime is very strict. You can also see it in the way he speaks; he thinks very hard about what he is going to say. This is a man under great self-control. I think that you can date that to the crisis (with alcohol) he faced in his mid-40s.

IBD: You say in the book that Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox aren't really friends as they have been portrayed. What is their relationship like?

Frum: They are fellow leaders. I'm sure they have cordial relations, but a leader of one country cannot be a friend with the leader of another country. They represent societies with different interests.

IBD: You describe Secretary of State Colin Powell as the administration's best "knife-fighter." What is the president's relationship with him like?

Frum: Everybody respects Powell, and he gets his way a lot of the time. But in the end, this administration has followed a course that is the president's course.

IBD: You describe former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill as somebody who would have made "a great undersecretary of defense for procurement" for the Pentagon. What do you mean?

Frum: He is very good at industrial processes. He is one of America's great industrialists. They put him in a job where he was responsible for the financial markets. It wasn't a match.

IBD: What is Bush adviser Karl Rove like and what is his relationship with the president?

Frum: Rove is one of the most brilliant people I think I will ever meet. He has read everything. He is an original thinker.

Bush pays a lot of heed to Rove's advice - on the subjects that he gives Rove to advise him. But it is a limited set of subjects. The idea that Rove is running America is a big misconception.

Frum: Cheney has earned his influence by making tremendous sacrifice of many of the things that vice presidents had valued.

I mean, Cheney has no political operation at all. Zero. He had one communications aide: Mary Matalin. She's gone, and he didn't replace her. He has one speechwriter who actually spends most of his time writing for the president.

Cheney is somebody who has completely given up any political ambition. Because of that, Bush can trust him entirely. And Cheney only looks good if Bush looks good.

Frum: The main thing that I have taken away from this experience is a deepened appreciation of how hard politics is. The more I saw in the White House, the more impressed I am that anything gets done at all.

I think history will show the Bush presidency to be very atypical among modern presidencies and will note that it marks a turning point for many key issues of our time.

Bush is is not pursuing the usual politically safe course that most modern presidents have taken in their first term. He is daring to tackle issues that no one, republican or democrat, ever thought he would.

He is pushing the Democrats so far out of their comfort zone they are literally lost and disoriented in the political landscape they once dominated and controlled. He really is the 'the right man' and I'm looking forward to reading this book.

I have just finished reading it... although I recall hearing the Whitehouse wasn't necessarily thrilled with it... overall, I thought it an interesting perspective of the inner workings in Whitehouse and believe it portrayed our president as a strong leader and man of character.

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