Bush casts off doubts about his leadership

Insight on the News, Nov 12, 2001 by Jamie Dettmer

The doubts have receded, the poll ratings are sky-high and George W. Bush is fitting more comfortably into the presidency. The surprised glance at the corner of the room, the goofy grin and the deer-in-the-headlights gaze of his early days in Washington are gone and the country is witnessing the making of a presidency.

Even former advisers to Bill Clinton have noted the ongoing transformation. From the measured demeanor to surer communication skills, from military restraint as planning was under way following Terror Tuesday to convincing resolution and deft diplomacy. "Bush has surprised the heck out of me. I think Clinton would have shied away from what has to be done," a Friend of Bill tells political notebook.

Bush may not have Clinton's extemporaneous adeptness and ability to project any lie as authentic, but he has the advantage of sincerity that overcomes verbal fumbles. And even on that front there has been a dramatic improvement, as was evident during the president's prime-time news conference of Oct. 11. Sitting in the back of the room, even Bush's longtime adviser, Karl Rove, seemed impressed and looked to be less the handler than the aide.

The oratory, of course, never was going to be a problem. Dwight Eisenhower was no speech maker, but he turned his simplicity of language into a strength, sometimes avoiding danger with opaque remarks, a useful skill for a president. But from the moment hijacked airliners tore into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon it was clear this crisis would be the making or breaking of George W. Bush.

The start for Bush wasn't auspicious. The scuttling around the country on the day of the attacks and his delayed return to a targeted Washington gave the impression of indecision or (worse) hiding out. A president who had been longer in office would have known to ignore extreme caution by the security people when the country needed him. His wide-eyed videotaped remarks from an air base in Louisiana made him seem unnerved.

Privately, congressmen of both parties questioned whether the neophyte president was up to the awesome task ahead. For the sake of national unity they kept their worries to themselves. Those doubts since have been allayed.

The first sign that the president was digging deep and becoming surer was his ignoring the initial warrior impulses to strike at Afghanistan immediately and refusing what he sneered at as a "CNN strike."

The second was the president's quick awareness of the dangers of a lynch-mob mentality at home and his warnings against attacks on American Muslims and Arab-Americans. He sounded that note frequently, with grace, and yet again during his prime-time news conference while urging Americans to be alert and to report suspicious activity.

Bush had one major advantage going into this crisis, acknowledge White House aides. As always before in his brief political career he was underestimated. Some of those who doubted him at the onset of this crisis had worried that his overcoming low expectations in earlier political races and governing a state was nothing compared to what was required of a national leader defending the country from foreign attackers.

But, judging by the huge poll ratings he is receiving, Bush has risen well to the challenges of reassuring the nation, giving expression to the sense of American loss and showing steely resolve to defeat the enemy. "There is a sense about him now that he is the president; he's marrying himself to the office, he seems less daunted, feeling less need to compare himself to previous presidents and how they did things," says a Bush confidant.

And the country appears to be getting used to him and his style. Following on from the two-term Clinton there was going to be a jolting period of adjustment. Clinton's approach was more intellectual in style if not substance. Bush is an altogether different type, intellectual affectations being something he has rejected since his days at the tony Phillips Andover prep school when the boy from Midland, Texas, found the preppy pretensions ridiculous.

Unlike Clinton, George W. Bush had no sense of social or intellectual inferiority driving him to try to be like the frozen chosen. Media commentators misunderstood that, say Bush friends. They argue that his critics too easily equated intellectual style with smarts. They ignored his intelligence and proved abilities as a manager with concentration and energy.

Those abilities are on show now. Despite the early tensions between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the foreign-and national-security team is working smoothly. There still is debate, but the discussions flow from a greater sense of common purpose. Administration officials say this reflects Bush's personal leadership.

"He's out there now, appearing in public more than before September 11, taking the public lead, pressing the flesh," says a White House official. "Before the terrorist attacks there was a sense I suspect of people thinking [Dick] Cheney was the last word and that until you had heard it from the vice president it wasn't necessarily so. I think that has changed for good."