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The thesis proved wrong. Bush did what he had to do to win after New Hampshire, displaying a nimbleness--and a stomach for political hardball--that the country didn't know he had. In September, after falling behind Gore in the polls, Bush had to change gears again. Aides say Bush was stunned and angered by public and media reaction to his attempt to ignore the tiny and relatively unknown Commission on Presidential Debates and instead to hold talk show-style debates. The gambit backfired, creating the impression that Bush, and not Gore, was trying to duck the debates. It had never occurred to the Governor that an institution as obscure as the commission would be vested with so much authority and would thus be so impossible to defeat. "He wanted it his way," says a top aide. "He didn't realize it had to be done a certain way. When he did, he adapted and did well."
Bush also learned to let go of things he couldn't control. In Texas, aides say, he was used to managing a relatively small staff and dealing with a press corps whose members he got to know personally. The size of his campaign operation and the unpredictability of the national press corps rattled Bush at first. Early on, when asked if he had ever used illegal drugs, Bush refused to answer. Then when he was hit with a series of cleverly posed questions about whether he could have cleared White House background checks, he didn't know how to handle them and became irritated. "That's the game in American politics," he scoffed, referring to press inquiries about past drug use, "and I refuse to play it." But when an old drunk-driving arrest was revealed just before Election Day, Bush handled the issue with aplomb. "It's an accurate story," he told reporters. "I oftentimes said that years ago I made some mistakes: I occasionally drank too much...I learned my lesson." Says Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, another Bush friend: "In the early days, you could [tell] those questions were rubbing on him. At the end, he told people where the fence was and dared them to crawl over it. You never sensed he was publicly or privately having an emotional moment over it."
As the campaign wore on, Bush grew increasingly convinced that his strongest asset was his personality. But Bush also learned during his run that even with Texas-size charm offensives, "things don't always move the way you want," as one top aide puts it. "He won't waste a lot of energy trying to move mountains that won't move." His parents, who gave him everything and who have seen his limits up close, are impressed too by his growing political sobriety. "He did a great job of staying on message," the former President told TIME last week. As usual, Barbara Bush put it more bluntly. "He is much better at controlling himself than his mother...And thank heavens."
--With reporting by Ann Blackman/Washington