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For now Bush seems genuinely to enjoy being President. He works as hard at the job as Carter did, yet wears the office as lightly as Reagan. He takes unusual pleasure in secretly arranging small parties for staff and Cabinet officers in the Rose Garden, in his horseshoe pit or around the White House pool. After a twelve-hour workday last April that began in San Jose and ended in Los Angeles, Bush had completed his scheduled events but, in a typical burst of spontaneity, summoned four Chinook helicopters to ferry him, his staff and reporters to a baseball game in Anaheim.
Most evenings, though, Bush retires to his note writing, thanking friends and advisers for help or requesting more information on a particular topic. He carries this correspondence to work the next morning, having already scanned six newspapers* in bed, while sipping coffee and watching the television news shows with Barbara.
Bush is often in the Oval Office before 7 a.m., talking with intelligence briefers and later with Scowcroft. He meets with Sununu for an hour each morning, quickly working through a notebook of "action items." These can range from learning the results of a new statewide poll in Kentucky to approving a compromise position on the savings-and-loan legislation.
Later, between greeting dozens of visitors, Bush will peruse articles, mail and briefing papers on a variety of subjects. He prefers that "backgrounders" not exceed five pages, but he often asks for details that demand twice as much space. He seems to edit almost everything presented to him; he made several revisions in the fact sheet and speech announcing his crime package, saying, "Here, this reflects my decision better than the other way." At 4:30, Sununu returns with "the p.m. agenda," a second notebook full of items for Bush's O.K.
Underlying this process is a lack of ideological conviction that has helped Bush cut deals on policy matters like the Nicaraguan contras, clean air and the savings-and-loan crisis that have stalemated the capital for years. Bush's "ideology," as it is, can be summed up in a few words: hard work, family, country, public service, loyalty. These priorities have allowed Bush to change his views on many controversial subjects -- abortion, gun control, "voodoo economics" -- during his 25-year political career. They explain why he stuck by John Tower, his choice to run the Pentagon, long after others had abandoned him. "George Bush is very loyal to people," says a close adviser, "more than to ideas."
Bush doesn't directly deny this. "I think there's an ideological underpinning to what we as an Administration are trying to do," he told TIME. "But I think I would give much more credit to able advisers, in that I don't sit down and tell those who are wrestling with the S & L problems, 'Do it this way.' They're telling me, and that's why they are in their jobs."