The first White House reaction to any political disaster is predictable. The first White House reaction to any political disaster is predictable. I'm not going to compromise on my convictions.
Denial is a human response to any crisis.
What counts is how soon and how smartly the politician who has been slapped in the face begins coming to grips with what has happened. In Clinton's case, within a few months he brought Dick Morris back into his circle, signed on to the Republican drive for a balanced budget and welfare reform, and then pounced on every GOP misstep, from the offensive against the Department of Education to the December 1995 shutdown of the government. Whether Bush is equally smart depends on how he interprets the dramatic events of the past week. The circumstances are different. Republicans were not voted out of their narrow control of the legislative branch.