Washington, Mar. 10: President Barack Obama could do what his predecessor George Bush did to get America back on track as the only superpower of the world.

According to Fox News, though Obama is ideologically worlds apart from Bush, both have the political instinct to convert a calamity into an opportunity.

The Bush administration demonstrated this in the wide-ranging policy changes sought and implemented after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the Obama administration is attempting to do the same through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

"We''re not facing these economic challenges because of one thing. We''re not going to get out by solving one thing," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush re-evaluated what the country should consider a threat to security, famously declaring the U. S. couldn''t wait to find a "smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

Fast forward two terms, and Obama is proposing what could be a trillion dollar health care reform, in addition to the
787 billion dollar stimulus package, to address the economic crisis on all fronts.

Analysts and historians say the two presidents'' reasoning is the same.

"They really are trying to push their own policies to the max," said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has worked in several administrations.

Obama''s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also suggested an even broader agenda, quoting White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as saying, "never waste a good crisis."

"When it comes to the economic crisis, don''t waste it, when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security," Clinton said Friday.

Going back further, political analysts note that after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt ignored public opinion and aimed most of the country''s military might at Germany.

"While each president is dealt a different hand, we expect that each president will use the powers of the office to take advantage of that," Hess said.

Likewise, a fight over health care could cost Obama the political support he needs to help the country weather an economy he''s warned will get worse before it gets better.

But Obama''s aides say the country''s economic house is on fire, and broad action is necessary. (ANI)