Events Near and Far Overshadow Bush's Agenda

On the first day of his last year in the White House, President Bush returned to Washington with an ambitious agenda for 2008, including tackling the mortgage lending crisis and securing more money from Congress for Iraq.

Those plans, however, face significant challenges, not the least of which are Bush's approval ratings and his ability to take national attention away from those campaigning to replace him.

Before boarding Air Force One after a week of vacation at his Crawford, Tex., ranch, Bush told reporters that he and his family had "a good rest."

"I'm looking forward to getting back to Washington to work on policies to keep this country safe and to keep this country prosperous," he said.

Those policies, White House counselor Ed Gillespie said on the airplane, include making permanent tax cuts set to expire in 2011 and doing more to help stabilize the housing market.

The president will also push to permanently revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to give the federal government more latitude to go after terrorists, and to persuade Congress to spend more on Iraq than just the "down payment" appropriated last month for war costs, Gillespie said.

Bush and his aides appear to be making a concerted effort to keep the president's agenda before the public, scheduling a trip for Monday, when Bush will lay out his plans personally.

Gillespie did not detail where Bush would go, but the trip is likely to run up against coverage of the Iowa caucuses tomorrow and the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the president's planned Middle East trip, which begins Tuesday, must compete for attention with the political crises in Pakistan and Kenya and the ongoing negotiations with North Korea to declare the extent of its nuclear arsenal.

"The next couple of weeks for the president are going to be overshadowed by events that he cannot control, meaning Pakistan, North Korea, but also Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina," said James A. Thurber, an American University presidential scholar. "Those things will be above the fold unless there is some big crisis, no matter how he uses the bully pulpit and no matter how he uses the presidency."

Other White House priorities for 2008, Gillespie said, include finalizing further free-trade agreements and extending the No Child Left Behind education law.

"We're accustomed now to this new Congress and dealing with a Congress that's in the other party's hands," Gillespie said. "I think we've reached a way of working with Congress that does get results for the American people. It's not always pretty, but it does get results that I think are beneficial."