Bush Focuses Now on Both His Outer, Inner Politicians

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  George W. Bush on the campaign stage--voice rising, rain falling--was all high spirits and exhortations Saturday, eyes firmly trained on the fall election.

The George W. Bush on the campaign plane just a few hours earlier was obviously gazing at something else.

Maybe history. Definitely his family. Clearly a couple of crucial relationships--brand-new running mate, presidential dad.

As he travels toward Philadelphia through a half-dozen swing states, inching closer to the Republican nominating convention, this famously outward-looking man has suddenly turned a little introspective.

While the whole convention--which begins Monday--is “a special moment,” Bush told reporters Saturday, the capper will be “walking out on that stage Thursday” for his acceptance speech.

Onto that stage and into his father’s footsteps. If Bush makes it to the White House in January, George W. and George H. W. will be only the second father-son presidential duo in U.S. history, after John Adams and John Quincy Adams in the early days of the republic.

Bush Dynasty Heads to Philadelphia

And for the first time in a long campaign, Bush spoke easily, almost eagerly, of the complicated interchange of father and son that hovers above this run for the White House and resides at the unspoken center of the convention.

While the presidential father won’t address the country, the entire Bush dynasty will head to Philadelphia to watch the nominee son shine.

“It’s going to be an emotional moment for me,” Bush said on his campaign plane before heading off for a day of Kentucky campaigning. “I’m glad [my dad’s] going to be there.

“I’m mindful of the Adams family factor,” he continued. “It wasn’t that long ago that [my father] was the president of the United States, which will make the story unique and different.”

And when he accepts the GOP nomination for president, when he takes on his father’s former mantle, “I will approach the moment with a lot of feeling and a lot of emotion,” he said, “recognizing there’s going to be a lot of people watching, with my family, which means more to me than anything.”

But Bush went out of his way to insist Saturday that the man he reveres and resembles is not the power behind the campaign.

Sure, Bush is leaning on luminaries from his father’s administration to fill crucial roles in this campaign team. And, yes, his vice presidential pick, Dick Cheney, was Dad’s former secretary of Defense.

President Bush, however, “is a dad first and foremost,” said his oldest son. “The man is not a political consultant. . . . The advice I get from him is the advice a dad would give a son. It’s comforting.”

Cheney and Bush campaigned together Friday on the first day of the Renewing America’s Purpose tour, which began in President Clinton’s home state of Arkansas. While Cheney peeled off in Joplin, Mo., that evening to return to Washington, Bush said the two men have been figuring out their rhythm on the campaign trail.

Come fall, both men plan to concentrate heavily on the crucial swing states, the mostly Midwestern region where the election is expected to be decided.

They will operate like a tag team, Bush said, with him hitting a state one week and Cheney the next. “We’ll mesh with a coordinated schedule,” Bush said.

Different Presences on the Podium

The two men are very different presences on the podium. In their single day on the trail together, the soft-spoken Cheney introduced Bush with no more than a three-minute speech. The more ebullient Bush followed with a folksier 15 minutes at the microphone, rallying supporters, defending ideas.

“He’s got a different style than I do, a little more laid back than mine,” Bush acknowledged Saturday. “It’s a very comforting style. People trust Dick Cheney. I trust him.”

So far, Cheney hasn’t had much to say, though Bush insists his No. 2 guy “can talk as long as he wants” and promises that America will hear more from the man in the future.

In fact, in an interview taped Saturday for broadcast on “Fox News Sunday,” Cheney lit into Clinton. “I am generally one of those people who thinks Bill Clinton has been an enormous embarrassment to the country,” he said. “He is a tragic figure in a way, obviously very bright. He’s got a very impressive set of basic interpersonal political skills . . . but obviously has fundamental flaws.”

Chris Lehane, spokesman for Vice President Al Gore, said the Cheney comment “reflects how shallow the Bush-Cheney campaign is. They’ve been saying for weeks they would not engage in the politics of personal destruction, but right out of the box they resorted to old-style Republican politics.”

As the pre-convention tour wends slowly to Philadelphia--Friday was Arkansas and Missouri; Saturday, Kentucky; if it’s Sunday it must be Ohio--Bush has begun to ruminate more about what he hopes to accomplish at the convention.

Appeal to Broader Audience

He wants to appeal to a broader audience, wants real people to tell their stories as a way to reinforce his message, speaks daily about how proud he will be when wife Laura takes the stage on Monday night with the first prime-time address.

“We’ll try to make the convention interesting so people pay attention,” Bush said. His goal for the event: “That people appreciate my record, who I am as a person, what we intend to do in the campaign and, if elected, in the administration.”

But he’s not there yet. On Saturday he braved a soft summer rain and a bevy of anti-death penalty protesters to stand beside an eight-story replica of a Louisville Slugger and exhort his supporters for the battle ahead.

When he picked Cheney for the bottom of the ticket, he told several hundred damp Kentuckians, he “made what’s called a presidential decision.” His Social Security plan will protect senior citizens, he said. His education plan “will leave no child behind.”

And his ticket?

“We’ve been working our way through states that Republicans haven’t done well in lately,” he said. “We’ve been in Arkansas. Guess what’s going to happen in Arkansas in November? Bush-Cheney’s gonna win there.”