President Bush soon showed that he was not "compassionate" as he maintained to be during the election campaign, but a right wing republican, the servant of the extreme right wing people who, in fact, chose and elected him. This was very obvious when he nominated the members of his cabinet and the top civil servants. Moreover, from the start, he was particularly interested to undo what his predecessor, the democrat President William (Bill) Clinton, had done. Unfortunately, in most cases, he had no replacement policy, and the country was really at a stand still for a few months. This was particularly obvious in the field of security, as it will be shown later.

In other words, George W Bush was a lame president due to the way he was elected, and it was soon obvious that, baring some exceptional events, he would only be a one-term president like his father. Fortunately for him, and probably unfortunately for the USA and the world, this exceptional event occurred on September 11, 2001.

A limited summary shows that the Bush administration was acting in two directions:
a- Undo what the Clinton administration had done in the social and protection of the environment fields.
b- Reward the big industry that financed his election campaign.
For instance, in 2001, Bush and his administration took the following decisions:
- White House announces regulatory freeze (20/1/2001).
- New raw-sewage rules delayed by Bush regulatory freeze (20/1/2001).
- Bush seeks to open Artic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development (20/1/2001).
- Bush administration to try to adjust the boundaries of 19 new national monuments (20/2/01).
- Bush retreats from campaign promise to reduce carbon pollution (13/3/01).
- Bush withdraws new arsenic-in-drinking-water standard (20/3/01).
- Bush administration rejects Kyoto Protocol (28/3/01).
- Bush administration suspends the "contractor responsibility rule" (30/3/01).
- Bush seeks to relax requirements of Endangered Species Act (9/4/01).
- Cheney sketches out a misguided energy policy (30/4/01).
- Agriculture secretary undercuts forest management process (17/5/01.
- President Bush releases his energy plan (17/5/01).
- Bush administration formally suspends arsenic-in-drinking-water protections (22/5/01).
- Bush will not change fuel efficiency standards (19/6/01).
- Bush seeking to weaken federal environmental enforcement (23/7/01).
- Bush unlikely to offer alternative global warming plan (26/7/01).
- EPA wants to scrap air pollution regulations for power plants (26/7/01).
- Army Corps of Engineers to weaken wetlands protections (8/8/01).
- EPA postpones action on power plants, expected to favour limited approach (14/8/01).
- Bush administration appeals federal judge's decision to ban drilling off California's coast (17/8/01).
- Bush administration seeks to fast-track missile defence program, but coalition sues to force drafting of environmental impact statements (28/8/01).
- Bush administration considers disposing of radioactive waste in consumer products (28/8/01).
- Bush backing away from pledge to clean up federal facilities (7/9/01).
- Corps official uses terrorist attacks as excuse to weaken environmental protection (21/9/01).
- Corps of Engineers ignores "no net loss" wetlands policy (2/11/01).
- White House plans deep cuts in environmental spending (28/11/01).
- EPA may lift ban on human testing of pesticides (28/11/01).
- Snowmobile ban unlikely to be implemented in Yellowstone and Grand Teton (10/12/01).
- DOE weakens standards for Yucca nuclear storage (14/12/01).