Campaign 2000: Feeding Both Sides

Bush's success comes partly from tending the two G.O.P.s. But is that enough against McCain?

Thanksgiving was still a day away, but George W. Bush was already counting his blessings last Wednesday morning. Although the temperature outside the Governor's mansion in Austin, Texas, had slipped into the unseasonable mid-40s, sunlight filled the second-floor solarium, where Bush and five of his top campaign advisers were seated around a table. The mood was relaxed, maybe even thankful. After all, Bush had just passed two big tests. He had performed adequately in delivering his first major foreign-policy speech, and two days later he had emerged virtually unscathed from a one-hour grilling on NBC's Meet the Press. After being knocked...

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