Bush supporter sees strength in war on terror, tax policy for re-election bid

For junior Michael Schuler, the best candidate in the 2004 presidential election couldn't be any clearer.\nIt has to be President George W. Bush, the Republican nominee. \n"He is stronger in the war on terror," Schuler said. "He's demonstrated that. He will take action even if the political consequences are negative."\nSchuler said the protection of America in the future really is what the election will be all about. Schuler is comfortable with Bush, and uncomfortable with Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.\n"I see Kerry changing his views so many times. That's a problem for me," Schuler said. "The way he changes from one position to another, it's just uncertainty. You wonder if he's going to do what's necessary."\nAnd as someone who wants to venture into the business world someday, Schuler said he also believes in keeping the tax rates for Americans lower.\n"I believe in lower taxes. I want to be in business one day," Schuler said. "Kerry talks about rolling back the tax cuts on $200,000 and over, and I want to make that or more some day. If the tax rate is going to be higher, there's no incentive for that to happen."\nWith the national election one week away, Bush and Kerry are locked in statistical dead heats in nearly every poll being released. As the race enters its homestretch, the president continues campaigning, balancing his strengths and his weaknesses, as he tries to convince the American electorate to "re-hire" him.\nRecent polls have shown Americans have faith in Bush's personal strengths, but find cracks of weakness in some of his policies.\n"One of Bush's strengths is of being the commander-in-chief," said James Andrews, a professor of communications and culture who focuses on political rhetoric. "There's a sense of having decisiveness, and an advantage of a kind of clarity. People think they know what he's going to do."\nEven though Bush's approval rating overall is dropping, Andrews said there is still a strong personal likability for the president, a vital political asset.\nBush's weaknesses, though, can be derivative of his strengths. World events, such as Iraq, seem to have proven the president at least inaccurate, Andrews said.\n"There are times when decisiveness might be perceived as stubbornness, as an inability to recognize errors or to make adjustments," Andrews said. "I think the Kerry campaign is saying, 'Why don't you admit you made a mistake?' which, of course, in a campaign Bush is not allowed to do. It puts him in a tight spot."\nBush's first term in office has produced large pieces of his planned domestic agenda -- three large tax cuts, the "No Child Left Behind" education reform and a modernization of Medicare that added prescription drugs to the program. But his term has been predominantly focused on foreign policy, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. \nIn March 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq in an effort to disarm a country it said had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction or aid terrorists. The war proved extremely divisive, and while Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was removed from power, no weapons of mass destruction have been found yet.\nFifty-eight-year-old George Walker Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, graduated Yale University with a B.A. in history in 1968. Bush served as president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity for three years and was a member of the Skull and Bones Society.\nBush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 following his graduation from Yale, and served as an F-102 pilot. Bush received permission to leave the Guard in 1973 to attend Harvard University. He graduated with an M.B.A. in 1975.\nBush entered business around the same time he entered politics. In 1978, Bush ran for the U.S. House in a rural Texas district, but lost to Kent Hance, a Democrat who accused Bush of being an "outsider" who attended east coast schools. After his defeat, Bush began a career in the oil industry when he established Arbusto Energy ("arbusto" is Spanish for "bush"), an oil and gas exploration company. \nArbusto was sold in 1984 to Spectrum 7, another exploration firm, and Bush became the CEO of Spectrum. Two years later, Spectrum was saved by a buyout from Harken Energy Corp., with Bush becoming that company's director.\nBush's last job in the private sector was as a managing general partner of the Texas Rangers, a major league baseball franchise, from 1989 until 1994, when he became the governor of Texas. Gov. Bush defeated former Vice President Al Gore for the presidency in the contentious race of 2000, winning a scant majority of the Electoral College and losing the popular vote by half a million ballots.\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.