His entire sense of the job came to depend on being a war President.
Mr Obama's popularity has fallen faster than that of any post-war president bar Gerald Ford.
There are two other complications that arise from Mr Bush running primarily as a war president.
Bush described himself as a "war president" who did what he thought was right to lead the nation.
Both men present themselves in mainly personal terms: Mr Bush as the resolute war president, Mr Kerry as the thoughtful Vietnam vet.
Ironically, Roosevelt's big-government bent made him an ideal war President.
"You know very well this is a pretext of a political war between President Basescu and me, a war each of us leads with their own weapons, " he said.
Less than two weeks ago, a peace deal was signed in South Africa between the Congolese President, Joseph Kabila, and one of the key players in the four-year old war, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.
It is interesting that the only other post-World War II president to maintain high standing with a majority of Americans is Ronald Reagan.
The Democrats were about to nominate as their standard bearer Hubert Humphrey, LBJ's loyal, pro-war vice president, even though Humphrey had not competed in a single primary.
When it came time to finance World War I, President Wilson faced similar challenges.
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Now Joe Lieberman is far more than just somebody who supports the war, supports President Bush.
It was proper to speak of parents the old-fashioned way in the days of World War II and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Kennedy lived up to the ideals of three older brothers, all of whom died young -- Joseph in World War II, President John and Sen.
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Nobody, I know from experience, there's nothing the United States Congress can do by a piece of legislation to alter the conduct of a war that the President decides to pursue.
While Mr. Obama surely does not seek a return to these earlier forms of conflict, a return to first principles such as hostis humani generis may prove a better guide for a nation at war than a president's day-to-day instincts.
Following the end of World War II, President Truman issued an Executive Order to standardize the Presidential Seal, and the Coat of Arms was modified so that the eagle faces to its right, the direction of honor, and also toward the olive branch, a symbol of peace, rather than toward the arrows which represent war.
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The war and the loss of popularity for President Bush regarding the war in the Republican Party has generally caused a meltdown in the Republican Party.
Four years before that Vice President Al Gore looked to be the bigger spender and more avid war-monger, but President Bush seized those mantles once inaugurated.
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Nicolas Sarkozy opposed the Iraq war as much as President Chirac's handling of the diplomacy.
Since World War II, no president has been re-elected with unemployment higher than 7.2%.
In America in the late '60s, a generation was grappling with an unpopular war and an unpopular president.
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Under the War Powers Resolution a president must ask Congress's permission if hostilities last more than 90 days.
He was responsible for organizing the Mannerheim Line of defense against Russia during World War II and was president of Finland from 1944-1946.
He was responsible for organising the Mannerheim Line of defence against Russia during World War Two and was president of Finland from 1944-1946.
After the war, he became President of Columbia University, then took leave to assume supreme command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951.
At the height of the Iraq War in 2006, President George Bush signed a law making it a crime for anyone to wear military medals that they had not earned.
Schorn for 4 million shares. (Schorn's brother, Terence, is president of War Eagle Mining.) CanWest sold the Alberta prospect in October for "nominal cash proceeds" and wrote off the investment.
Experts are already pointing to the build-up to the first Gulf War in 1991 when President Bush senior - while insisting such a resolution was not necessary - did indeed seek and obtain congressional support for the war to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
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