With apologies to the people, Bush can still reform his presidency

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006 | 5:43 a.m.

NEW YORK President Bush now has a public approval rating that is 33 percentage points lower than President Bill Clinton's was at the time he was impeached. But wait! Bush's presidency may be caught in a profound malaise, but he can still rehabilitate himself to some degree - if he acts quickly and decisively to reshuffle his administration and approach to governing. The obvious model for Bush is Ronald Reagan's presidency, when it was in a similar tailspin in 1987. The Iran-contra scandal, the failure of the Bork nomination and the stock market plunge left the Reagan administration "paralyzed" and "dead in the water," pundits wrote. A National Journal headline read, "Reagan Now Viewed as an Irrelevant President." So Reagan systematically overhauled his presidency. He reached out to congressional Democrats and appointed a bipartisan commission of three respected statesmen - John Tower, Ed Muskie and Brent Scowcroft - to ! investigate Iran-contra. He fired or accepted resignations from two national security aides, John Poindexter and Oliver North. He also fired his chief of staff, Donald Regan, and replaced him with Howard Baker, who was respected by both parties. Reagan spoke to the nation, accepting personal responsibility for the scandal. "No excuses," he said. "It was a mistake." Reagan also moderated his agenda, and his approval rating rose from 40 percent in 1987 to 64 percent when he left office. The other model Bush could turn to is himself. After Gov. Bush suffered a stunning 18-point loss to John McCain in the New Hampshire primary in February 2000, not all the efforts on Bush's behalf were aboveboard. But Bush himself did completely retool his campaign. He swiped McCain's central campaign theme, the need for reform, and appeared with banners declaring, "A Reformer With Results." Bush borrowed McCain's speaking style - more informal and ! funny. He even tried to pretend that he liked reporters. But! Bush to day is not retooling; he's hunkering down in the bunker. Instead of the Reagan approach of 1987, it's the Nixon approach of 1973. It just increases the national polarization and doesn't help Bush. So he should start over. For starters, here are four suggestions:

Nicholas Kristof is a columnist for The New York Times.