VILLANOVA, Pa. – How will history judge President Bush?

On Saturday, Nov. 22, at Villanova University, 21 scholars from around the nation will address this question. The “Judging Bush” conference is sponsored by the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas, along with partners at Villanova and the University of Southern Mississippi.

Paradoxically, George W. Bush entered national politics as one of the most popular Texas governors in history, but he went on to become a very controversial president, said conference director Robert Maranto, who holds the endowed chair in education leadership at the University of Arkansas. While presidential “greatness” is a slippery concept, both scholars and the general public ranked highest those presidents who boldly pushed an activist agenda, according to Maranto.  Arguably, Bush fits the bill. So what accounts for his current unpopularity? Will history support current judgments?

“Judging Bush”will feature a keynote address by John J. DiIulio, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and former director of the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. It is titled “Mayberry Machiavellis After All? Why Judging George W. Bush’s Presidency Is Never So Easy as It Seems.”

Maranto will give a presentation about Bush’s decision-making, focusing on how the president’s boldness and personal skills led to success in education policy, but failure in Iraq.  The conference also will address such topics as the role of Vice President Dick Cheney, judicial appointments, No Child Left Behind, homeland security, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The beauty of this conference is that we have brought together 21 of America’s top authorities on political leadership, some who like President Bush and some who don’t, so it won’t be dull,” Maranto said. “Particularly in this election year, we hope to prove useful to high school social studies teachers looking for reasonably objective criteria for judging presidents and other political leaders.”

A book based on the conference will be published by Stanford University Press in 2009.

The conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Nov. 22 and is free and open to the public. For details and a schedule of conference events go to http://www.villanova.edu/artsci/psc/newsevents/judging_bush_conference.htm