Kind words. Gentle words. Nothing flashy or particularly memorable. Just good, plain talk from the heart. And a departure: if George Bush signaled anything by proclaiming a "new breeze," it was a new altruism, a move away from the Reagan era's tacit approval of selfishness, an end to the glorification of greed. "Use power to help people," said the 41st President. "We are not the sum of our possessions . . . We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he found it . . . in all things, generosity."
John Kennedy's "ask not" formulation was better put, and Eisenhower's too: "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." But Bush's simplicity was profound, and more in keeping with his underlying message. After a negative campaign that valued victory above all, Bush's positioning himself as a moral leader may seem strange. But the new President, for one, believes that the election "was then" and that the "time to govern" should obliterate inconvenient memories.
All ceremonial addresses are laced with generalities. The trick is to pick the right ones -- and Bush did. In tone and substance, the President's Inaugural was upbeat and confident, exactly what an inherently optimistic people expects at a moment of national celebration. Jimmy Carter showed how easy it is for a leader to lose his way. "Even our great nation has its recognized limits," said Carter in his Inaugural. He was right, of course, but missed the point nonetheless. A country conditioned to being No. 1, a country that believes that by right it should be No. 1, is not disposed to countenance slippage on what Bush called "democracy's big day."
From the political master he served loyally for eight years, Bush has come to appreciate the value of symbolism. By now it is innate: telegraphing decay is not the way to lead the free world. So it was that last Friday the new President said, "We know how to secure a more just and prosperous life for man on earth," the accuracy of his certitude being irrelevant to the occasion. He even looked good doing it. "I can't explain it," Barbara Bush once said, "but . . . the camera shrinks him and makes him seem small." Not last week. Perhaps it was only the trappings, but George Bush finally looked presidential.
The perception has already taken hold: Bush is more sensitive and caring than Ronald Reagan, more of a hands-on administrator (could anyone be less?), a more accessible leader who will conduct spontaneous press conferences (if only to prove he is on top of his game), a pragmatic moderate willing to accommodate reality rather than rail against it. Already his excessive jingoism has been banished, out of sync with the style he seeks to project. (Was it really George Bush who said, after the Vincennes disaster last July, "I will never apologize for the United States of America. I don't care what the facts are"?) Already forgotten as well is the promise of "wholesale change" and "fresh faces." In the Bush Administration, the experienced and credentialed are welcome -- and everywhere. More than 80% of the top White House staffers appointed so far have served there previously.