THE WHITE HOUSE (FinalCall.com)�George W. Bush may be the luckiest president in American history.

He won the office despite getting fewer votes in the last election than his opponent.

Less than eight months after his inauguration, the nation was plunged into a foreign war. Since that time he has enjoyed record-high approval ratings from the public.

His popularity persists, despite what some analysts consider his "disastrous" domestic policies; an extremely conservative agenda; an erosion of civil liberties; a tax cut and military spending increases which signal a return to high federal budget deficits; and the erection of an ideological stonewall which may prevent even slight progress in the near future for the Black agenda.

First on the Black agenda is the matter of getting the administration to address and listen to Black leadership, that is Blacks who represent significant constituencies. During one full year in office, Mr. Bush has avoided Black leaders, meeting only once with the Congressional Black Caucus, followed by a series of courtesy calls he arranged with other Blacks last spring.

After widespread Black voter disenfranchisement in the 2000 elections the issue of "restoring faith in the democracy" has a greater importance than ever before.

In addition, even Black Republicans are on record urging the president to "build prosperity, and build a sense of hope and opportunity for every American, so that America�s history of unequaled economic status, employment opportunities, educational achievement, and fair and decent housing can be guaranteed for all."

Politically, however, President Bush has sought to make himself more elect-able by vowing not to repeat the mistakes of the administration of his father�George H. W. Bush�by governing according to the policies laid down by his father�s predecessor, Ronald Reagan.

"I can�t think of any other president who lucked-up on the presidency of the United States, and then lucked-up on a war, which was a powerful way to ensure his credibility with the American people. It had nothing to do with him, it had everything to do with luck," Dr. Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland professor of political science, told The Final Call.

Analysts see Mr. Bush using his war-time popularity to fuel proposals on the international and the domestic fronts, some of which were part of his Jan. 29 State of the Union address.

Unlike President Reagan, who soundly trounced Jimmy Carter, Mr. Bush can�t argue that he has a mandate.

George W. Bush came into office with the slimmest of Electoral College majorities and fewer popular votes in the 2000 General Election than Vice President Al Gore. He has taken his slim victory, coupled with Republican control of both the House and the Senate in the first three months of his presidency, and orchestrated a political sea change.

The "Black Agenda" therefore suffers, along with other policy areas. "What he�s trying to do is to stretch out, find ways to enrich this whole �war against terrorism� motif, and theme, and operation, to continue to provide him the credibility that he needs," said Dr. Walters.

There are two implications, he explained. First, an across-the board loss of civil rights for all Americans. "The second implication is that it has covered over very serious aspects of the Black agenda (to) prevent it from getting forward, and probably will continue to prevent it from getting forward," said Dr. Walters.

Conservative, right-wing Republicans have gained "another layer of credibility, another layer of things that will continue to thwart the emergence of the progressive agenda," he added.

The president�s address referred to jobs, but unemployment among Blacks has recently risen by 10 percent after being at its lowest ever. The government�s budget deficit has spearheaded the rise in unemployment, which has already begun to cut domestic programs and allocate more spending on defense and security.

"The solutions that Bush is talking about in terms of the economy, mainly tax cuts, are not things that are going to benefit African Americans very much. Most of the tax cuts are going to rich people and rich white people. The further we get away from Sept. 11, the concern about terrorism will recede and the concern about the economy will grow," Dr. David Bositis, senior fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, predicts.

Neither the State of the Union speech, nor the Bush agenda offer much for Black America, observed Dr. Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, of the Black Leadership Forum, Inc., in Washington, D.C.

"The issues facing Blacks in America and other communities of color were overshadowed by the rhetoric in the speech," she said. "It is clear to anyone that can add one and one that you cannot do both�provide increased support for healthcare, education, housing for the homeless and job training for the unemployed and still give the richest people in the country a tax cut and send billions of dollars in a disproportionate percentage of the budget into a defense system which is fighting an amorphous enemy," Dr. Scruggs-Leftwich said.

While the U.S. already spends more on defense than the world�s next dozen countries combined, Mr. Bush has used the war against terrorism as a justification for proposing a $48 billion increase in the $300 billion spent annually by the Pentagon.

"There are a lot of other people who are concerned about that, because if the United States builds up its military that much, you know very well what it�s going to do ... it�s going to encourage adventurism," said Dr. Bositis. Military officials are going to want to justify their big budgets by fighting wars and killing people, he continued.

Mr. Bush appears to have already encouraged adventurism by the chief U.S. ally in the Middle East. In his State of the Union address Jan. 29, Mr. Bush warned old nemesis Iraq, along with Iran and North Korea, that they may be the next targets in the U.S. "war against terrorism."

Since that time he has defined state sponsors of terrorism as the "axis of evil." The State of the Union speech "was a gem of unilateralism and militarism," Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), said in an interview. "I think a number of European governments in particular were dismayed at the lack of any reference to alliances or coalitions."

Mr. Bush�s new "axis of evil" rhetoric may be a step away from imminent military mobilization against Iraq, however. By bracketing Iraq with two countries against whom nobody thinks there should be a military attack, the administration placated hardliners calling for immediate military action, she said.

But the diplomatic isolation of Iran may have everything to do with what Israel wants in the region, rather than strict U.S. interests. As the need for a broad international coalition in Afghanistan�including Islamic and Arab countries�diminished, the U.S. was able to re-embrace Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his hawkish policies toward the Palestinian Authority, and Chairman Yasser Arafat, its leader.

"By naming Hamas and (Islamic) Jihad and Hezbollah as terrorists equal to Al Qaeda, the message that goes out is in some ways more to (Mr.) Sharon that he could go after the Palestinian Authority on the basis of the P.A. being a quasi-state that�s harboring terrorists," said Ms. Bennis.

Mr. Bush may have encouraged the Israeli leader who is scheduled for an early February White House visit, when he failed to condemn the remarks by Mr. Sharon, who said Israel should have in fact killed Mr. Arafat "a long time ago."

"I think the best way to peace is for us all to keep the focus on what derails peace, and what derails peace is terror. And the more quickly we eliminate terror, the more likely it is we�ll have a peaceful resolution in the region," Mr. Bush told reporters Feb. 1, at the beginning of a meeting with Jordan�s King Abdullah.

Sitting with colleagues at the State of the Union address was Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), who agreed that the nation must defend itself and that security is needed. But, Rep. Davis said, the speech included "the same old, tired, worn out theory of trickle-down economics, that we know has not and will not work for the masses of the people.

"His theory is helping to perk up the wealthiest people in the country to the detriment of our people. He didn�t mention our social issues," said Rep. Davis. Drug trafficking that terrifies people in affected communities is a "terrorist attack," he argued. The same kind of energy and effort spent hunting accused terrorist leader Osama bin Laden needs to be used against drugs, Rep. Davis said.

"The state of the union is in bad shape because of the nation�s recession, which takes Blacks in the inner city into a depression," he added.

Harvey Sicherman, president of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the Bush administration must be careful not to wreck the justice system while fighting terrorism.

"Profiling has been a sore point. Police have gone after people of color because they somehow fit a profile. The Justice Department must make sure that the attempt to stop terrorism doesn�t end up profiling a lot of innocent people just because they are Arabs or Muslims," Mr. Sicherman said.

A lack of awareness permeated President Bush�s speech, said Robert Cunnigen, president of Association of Black Sociologists and professor at the University of Rhode Island. Though no one likes terror, Blacks have been and continue to be terrorized by the recession, which is now having a negative trickle down effect in education, jobs, earnings and access to medical care, he said.