The Presidency: Close to Power, Down to Earth

His life is filled with pomp and ceremony, but George Bush still seeks pleasure and meaning in the little things. He remembers vividly a late snowstorm in Maine when newly arrived robins crowded one another for peanut-butter spread on a shingle. He was just as fascinated last week when his cocker spaniel C. Fred treed a raccoon outside the Bush home on Observatory Hill in Washington. Bush and his wife Barbara often stroll in the evenings around the stately old house that is now established as the Vice President's residence.

He has dropped...

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