Blair's modernizing legacy weighed down by war

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- On a heady night in May 1997, a boyish Tony Blair -- triumphant and smiling -- greeted his giddy, flag-waving supporters, as the catchy pop tune "Things Can Only Get Better" played in the background.

After 18 years of wandering in the British political wilderness, Blair had not just led his Labour Party back into power -- he had led it to a smashing landslide victory, winning nearly two-thirds of the seats in the House of Commons and sending the once mighty Conservatives to their worst showing in nearly a century.

At just 43, he was young, cool and fresh, all the things the stodgy Tories were not, with a modern, career-minded wife, Cherie, and young children in tow. He had rebranded his party as New Labour, dragged it away from socialist orthodoxy and claimed what he called the "radical center." He had rescued Labour from near irrelevance and made it governing force once again.

"It is time now to do," Blair said as he arrived at No. 10 Downing Street to take the reins as prime minister.

Ten years on, the face is decidedly less boyish, and things are decidedly not better for Labour. Weighed down by an unpopular war, intra-party battles, a scandal over political contributions and the inevitable ennui an electorate comes to feel for a long-time leader, Blair's pending departure, which he announced Thursday, will be greeted with as much relief as mourning.

And yet, love or loathe him, Blair's accomplishments, as a politician and a prime minister, are too significant to be ignored or denied.

He led Labour to three consecutive general election victories for the first time -- seeing off four frustrated Conservative leaders in the process. He helped put to rest his party's previous reputation for reckless fiscal management, overseeing what Labour touts as the longest period of economic growth in British history.

Blair reconnected his party to the middle class, promising to be fiscally disciplined and crack down on crime and anti-social behavior. He stood up to powerful unions, and angered some of his own core supporters, by reforming public services and benefit schemes.

But he also pushed through a minimum wage to benefit low-income workers and poured billions of pounds into upgrading the country's cherished national health care system.

On the international front, Blair helped craft the Good Friday accords to bring peace to Northern Ireland, and he led the international charge to force Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic out of Kosovo. He brought global attention to the issues of poverty in Africa and climate change.

Yet, in the minds of his detractors, all of that is overshadowed by his decision to join U.S. President George W. Bush in the 2003 invasion of Iraq -- a choice from which he has refused to waver, despite a huge political cost to himself and his party, particularly after no weapons of mass destruction were found there.

However, what others see as foolish intransigence, Blair sees as being right.

The British leader acknowledged that in his speech on Thursday, saying: "I may have been wrong, that's your call, but believe one thing if nothing else: I did what I thought was right for the country."

Blair's close partnership with Bush seemed unlikely after the U.S. leader came to power in 2001. After all, Blair's political background is on the left; Bush's, on the right. But in the fight against Islamic terrorism, especially after the 9/11 attacks, the two men saw the battle along the same lines.

They were convinced, even if no one else was, that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein posed a threat that could not be ignored.

The Bush-Blair alliance earned the prime minister the unkind sobriquet "Bush's poodle." But Blair has been unrepentant about his staunch support of a close Anglo-American relationship, feelings he summed up during an address to the U.S. Congress in 2003.

"My nation that watched you grow, that you fought alongside and now fights alongside you, that takes enormous pride in our alliance and great affection in our common bond -- our job is to be there with you," Blair said.

For someone whose strode so large across the pages of modern British history, Blair's ascent to power was rather unexpected.

In 1994, Labour leader John Smith, who had been at the helm of the party for less than two years, died of a heart attack. Blair -- part of a group of young modernizers who wanted to move the party away from hard-line socialist policies that had contributed to four consecutive election defeats -- stood for the leadership and won, becoming, at 41, the youngest leader in the party's history.

He and his allies quickly ditched Labour's long-time commitment to nationalization of industry and recast the party's image as New Labour. Within three years, as the Conservatives, under Prime Minister John Major, faltered and fought with each other, Blair and New Labour swept to power.

After a year in office, Blair's approval ratings were at historic levels, and he easily won a second term in 2001, earning a majority nearly as large as his original landslide. But by the time he faced voters in 2005, with the Iraq war draining his popularity, he promised that if they returned him to office, he would not seek another term. Labor kept its parliamentary majority but won only an anemic 35 percent of the vote.

Immediately after the 2005 election, speculation began building over when Blair would depart. He refused to give a timetable until last fall, when he told the Labour Party's annual conference that he would go within a year.

That decision came amid a police investigation into allegations that coveted appointments to the House of Lords were doled out to Labor contributors. Blair was questioned as part of the probe, but Downing Street has insisted he is not a target of the investigation.

Blair's departure now sets off a leadership election in the Labour Party, with the winner taking the helm as prime minister. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown -- the treasury chief who has been both Blair's ally and rival during his tenure in Downing Street -- is the solid favorite to succeed him.

But as Blair exits, another young modernizer trying to lead his party out of the political wilderness is benefiting from the departing prime minister's political woes -- David Cameron, the 40-year-old leader of the Conservatives, who now lead Labour in national polls.

CNN's Robin Oakley, Christiane Amanpour and Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.

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