Changing the agenda

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann:

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... a president can always change the national agenda. The obvious places to start are Iran and North Korea, whose nuclear threats dwarf even Iraq in importance. If Iran gets the bomb, it gains not only the power to make good on its talk of wiping Israel off the map, but also greater ability to bully the entire Middle East.

Politically, the effort to curb Iranian nuclear ambitions and a high-profile push to get North Korea to destroy its nuclear arsenal will put Bush in a game he can win - one in which he still has plentiful options.

Diplomacy alone lacks credibility: Threats of a cutoff of purchases of Iranian oil and of direct military action are a must. The president should open talks with oil-consuming nations, too, pointing toward cutbacks in the purchase of Iranian oil. Japan - Iran's top customer - has already cut its purchase of Iranian oil by 15 percent to protest Tehran's nuclear plans.

The president should call for disinvestment in companies that invest in terror-sponsoring nations. Frank Gaffney, the former Reagan-era Pentagon official, has shown the way through his group disinvestterror.org - he's persuaded UBS and Credit Suisse to stop investing in companies that do business in Iran or North Korea. Sarah Steelman, Missouri's state treasurer, has indicated she'll do likewise with the pension funds she controls. Bush should order the federal government to follow suit - indeed, push for a national and global disinvestment campaign.

Domestically, Bush should emulate Clinton in doing all he can do via executive action - issuing executive orders to advance his agenda and making public proposals on a range of issues, even if they're outside the normal purview of presidential action.

There is a vast amount a president can do without Congress. Bush could advance the Republican agenda on a host of issues - border security, medical research, education standards, crime control, drug prevention - via executive action. Using the bully pulpit and the power of his office orders, he can make the kind of incremental changes in the lives of every American family that can revive his battered presidency.

Transcend Iraq, and focus on Iran and North Korea - problems he can solve; embrace small-bore domestic proposals. That's how Bush can save his presidency.

I am not sure he can solve the Iran and North Korean problems that easily, especially without political support. That has been the main problem in solving them before the mid term elections. The Democrats are just not willing to be aggressive with these people until it is too late. The diplomatic track is playing into the hands of Bush's enemies at home and the US enemies in Iran and North Korea. As long as we say we are going to exhaust every diplomatic option, they will keep throwing them at us to string us a long until they reach their objective of having nuclear blackmail ability.