Bush Adapts, but Won't Call It That

This seems especially true when Bush is confronted with a cataclysmic event and must improvise quickly -- as with the Dec. 26 tsunami or the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"The pattern we tend to see is an administration that quite often ends up doing the right thing, even though their initial judgments and first reactions are often wrong and short-sighted," said Charles Cook, a Washington-based political analyst and publisher of the Cook Political Report.

Slow to speak out, Bush first offered $15 million in financial aid, then $35 million. But now, having upped the aid package to $350 million and dispatched both Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to survey relief efforts, the president may capitalize on an opportunity to provide world leadership and improve his image among Muslims opposed to the Iraq war. Many of the tsunami victims are Muslim.

The president's decision to send his brother to the region was "about as strong a signal of personal concern and intent to help as Bush could send without going himself," said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas historian.

The first U.S. president with a graduate business degree, Bush sees himself as an unflinching leader who sticks to his guns. Yet on numerous occasions he has shown an ability to bend to the public will -- to the point of executing U-turns.

Administration officials have defended Bush's response to the Asian crisis by saying his primary focus was to ensure, out of the spotlight, a swift and coordinated U.S. relief effort. Bush also is known to deeply dislike providing running commentary on an ongoing major event, "grandstanding," as he might say.

Appearing Sunday on several talk shows, Powell contended that the administration had "responded appropriately."

"We have diverted food aid," Powell said on CNN's "Late Edition." "We have put disaster teams on the ground. The president announced the creation of a core group that allowed us to pull the contributing nations of the region together to work with the United Nations. We pulled together an international coalition that is working well now."