Swagger

I once taught a public policy seminar in Swagger 778. Bush should have signed up (don't worry, I'm a pretty easy grader). Swagger is everything in good policy-making, after all. Or he might now take a somewhat similar seminar by Prof. Powers called Mojo 765.

A president who roamed across the national and world stages with an unshakable self-assurance that comforted Republicans and confounded critics since 2001 suddenly finds himself struggling to reclaim his swagger. Bush's standing with the public -- and within the Republican Party -- has been battered by a failed Social Security campaign, violence in Iraq, and most recently Hurricane Katrina. His approval ratings, 42 percent in the most recent Washington Post-ABC poll, have never been lower.

A president who normally thrives on tough talk and self-assurance finds himself at what aides privately describe as a low point in office, one that is changing the psychic and political aura of the White House, as well as its distinctive political approach.