Is he making the grade?

• Position: A Symposium Of Views - George W. Bush

As to George W. Bush, two opposing views come to mind. The first: His presidency has seen its honeymoon come and go and is about to face a steady, debiliating decline in popularity. Of particular concern: the lack of a coherent global economic to weaken economically, even as the United States struggles to rebound. The second view: The drop in public support for the Bush administration to around the 50-percent mark should bot be surprising. The United States policywise is evenly divided. Plus the U.S. economy will almost certainly have rebounden by the time of the President's re-election. Thus things for Dubya will turn out quite fine, thank you very much. He'll win reelection, but once again by a thin margin.

How fo you rate Bush presidency so far? (Feel free to use a letter grade A, B+, C-, etc.) In your view, what one area needs serious improvement? What is the administration's greatest success to date? Its greatest failure?

As to a final grade seven months into what I believe will be an eight-year presidency. I give President Bush a very solid B+.

BOB DOLE

Former Senate Majority Leader and former Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1996.

After one of the closest and most contentious elections in recent history, President George W. Bush is doing just fine. As I said in a column for the Wall Street Journal, you can judge a president by the company he keeps. While polls are largely determined by circumstances, personnel are determined by choices--the choices of the president himself.

The first example is the White House staff. It is a senior staff that is politically sophisticated and includes strong women, old presidential friends, and proven administrators. The second example is the cabinet and agencies. Again, you can grade this president by the company he keeps. In these choices, President Bush has demonstrated considerable self-confidence. Some warned that he would be overshadowed by the stature of [Vice President] Dick Cheney, [Secretary of State] Colin Powell, and [Secretary of Defense] Don Rumsfeld. Fortunately for the nation, the President ignored these warnings and chose highly qualified and thoughtful people.

Seven months into his presidency, I believe George W. Bush's greatest success was being able to orchestrate and sign a tax cut that is giving real money--the people's money--back to hard working American families. It is a major accomplishment that has enjoyed broad bipartisan support, and will go a long way toward providing an economic stimulus.

With regard to anything the President may have done over, I believe he himself mentioned the fact that he may have handled the environmental issue a bit better. Not so much from a policy point of view, but rather how those polices are sold to a sometime suspicious media and then filtered to the American people. Often times, the best training is on the job, and this president is learning quickly.

As to a final grade seven months into what I believe will be an eight-year presidency, I give President Bush a very solid B+.

Grade: A, but next semester will be tougher.

MICHAEL J. BOSKIN

T.M. Friedman Professor of Economics, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; and former Chairman, President's Council of Economic Advisors.

President George W. Bush gets a first semester "A." He has assembled an outstanding economic team: Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, Chief Economic Adviser Larry Lindsey, Treasury International Undersecretary John Taylor, CEA Chairman Glenn Hubbard, Budget Director Mitch Daniels and, importantly, Vice President Dick Cheney. He has signed his tax cut into law in record time. This was not only impressive politics, but also good policy. If the tax cut had not passed, the bulk of the funds would have been spent by Congress--much of it wastefully. The gradually phased-in rate cuts will help the economy's longer-term growth. The short-run rebates are occurring "just in time" for a stalled economy.

Having played a minor role in the development of the tax plan with some of the people mentioned above and others, I can say that the most impressive thing about the entire process was the vision and steadfastness of George W. Bush...