Take another whirl with the poor cat and youll find someone who takes the opposite view. Folks in this corner believe Bush should look more presidential. He should stop goofing around with the nicknames and the jokes and sit up straight and act like the leader of the free world. You might think this kind of advice would confuse a White House — but in Bushland theyve decided both sides are right. The president needs to hang with regular people — particularly regular people of color — and let his charms show, and he needs to find moments when he can use the ceremony of the office to enhance his stature.
What falls away are the events in the middle: Look for a decrease in the number of round-tables with members of Congress and business leaders and sports teams. The White House believes those kinds of events create a muddy mix of messages and sap the energy of the President and his staff. "You have several different events a day and the president and staff have to get up for each of them," says one aide. "By the end its all a blur." Other White House aides believe that the number of events wears Bush down, accounting for some of the verbal diggers hes taken.
The new strategy was firmly in place when the president played street football on the Fourth of July, visited vacationers at the Jefferson Memorial and visited a hospital to check in on patients on the front lines of the HMO struggle. Sure, there were a few glitches: Bush looked goofy when he mugged for the cameras with the Philadelphia Phillies mascot, and it turned out that the hospital patient Bush spoke to didnt have any hard luck stories to tell about his HMO. But even though the gaffes, the message was loud and clear: Bush is a warm, huggable president.
Not so huggable, of course, as to lose any hard-won gravitas. With that careful balance in mind, the White House is also looking for venues that put a little more starch in Bushs shirt. Yesterday, the President took part in a swearing-in ceremony on Ellis Island for new citizens. The trip was designed to get him mixing with a number of faces of color — a tactic the White House believes sends all-important messages of compassion, caring and moderation. But the event also allowed the president to wrap himself in the greatness and majesty of the country itself, a feat he accomplished quite well during his remarks.
Later in the day, Bush presented a posthumous congressional gold medal to John Cardinal OConnor. Speaking in New Yorks cavernous St. Patricks cathedral, the President was eloquent, brief and at ease under the imposing arches. Earlier in the day hed boasted to reporters: "Im at the top of my game." He may have been right.
For the foreseeable future, anyway, the White House wont have to work too hard to find appropriately "presidential" events: Next week Bush takes off for Europe again for trade meetings and an audience with the pope. The trip should provide him with a number of chances to look commanding.
Happy Birthday, Mr. President.
The President may be able to look into Vladimir Putins eyes and see his soul, but he cannot tell when an employee is lying through his teeth. On the evening of July 4, George W. Bush was approached by a White House usher who told him that his brand new Oval Office rug had arrived. Wouldnt he like to take a peek at it? The President said hed love to, opened the door and was greeted by 85 friends gathered for a surprise birthday party.
The First Lady arranged the festivities, and guests included childhood friends, senior staff members and college fraternity brothers. The menu was appropriately all-American: Fried chicken, potato salad and corn bread.
The birthday cake read, "Happy Birthday Mr. President," and paid homage to Bushs favorite sport: Baseball. The cake was decorated with an edible bat (wrapped with ribbons of red white and blue sugar) and mitt, which held a meringue baseball adorned with the letter W. After the party, the assemblage stood on the Truman balcony to watch fireworks on the mall.