Post-Election Bush Puts on a Good Show as He Grasps Symbols of Power

Watching his new President-elect on television, one California office worker declared: “It’s like he grew 2 feet taller.”

In the 12 days since winning the White House, George Bush has indeed seemed to sprout--if not in size, at least in confidence, in stature, in equanimity. To some extent, this is evidence of the President-elect’s pleasure in finally, after a lifetime of hot pursuit, being the man, not the yes man.

More than that, though, it reflects a process by which election to the presidency transforms an individual into a national property, by which a single politician becomes the singular leader.

And Bush, keenly aware of the need to use his resounding victory to meet the challenges ahead, has vigorously grasped the symbols and trappings of the process.

During a brief Florida vacation, he brought in the cameras to record a he-man show of vitality, spontaneity and theatrics as he surf-fished in the Atlantic. In Washington, he was assertive, handing out his first jobs to a mix of powerful old friends and spiny, headstrong political operatives.

Busy Schedule

Bush called four press conferences, met with congressional leaders, greeted heads of state and dashed off to see a group of governors, all before the desks were delivered to his new transition office.

Each act suggests a man out to show command and confidence.

For America’s 41st President this is a particularly critical dawning. He was elected promising both change and stability, progress without taxes, a kinder and gentler but also a resolute and tough Administration. Jittery economic markets, a curious nation and an anxiously absorbed capital are watching Bush to see how he tries to keep all of those balls in the air. Meanwhile, across town a strengthened Democratic Congress contemplates its own mandate as it watches the Republican changing of the guard at the White House.

“He has reached this point in his life at exactly the right point in his life,” GOP speech writer and consultant Kenneth L. Khachigian said. “He is obviously his own man, and he’s trying to establish that in every way possible. He is 64. He is comfortable with himself, and he is asserting it.”

Experts already are trying to gain insight into the future from these first glimpses of Bush in the exercise of presidential power.

‘Let Them Fight It Out’

“His appointees are bolder than some may have expected. . . . He’s picking strong people as if to say, ‘let them fight it out and may the best man win,’ ” said Paul C. Light of the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Light foresees an Administration where staff rivalry and smoldering tension are the wellsprings of creativity--an Administration, in this regard at least, in the mold of Franklin D. Roosevelt or Lyndon B. Johnson.

“There is going to be more conflict, more heat. And that could produce some very, very good ideas because you have smart people competing with each other,” Light said.

White House Chief of Staff-designate John H. Sununu, 49, is one bit of evidence supporting that theory. The New Hampshire governor is a high-voltage, self-secure Washington outsider with an appetite for raw politics. His deputies-designate are likewise men with reputations for advancing politics ahead of policy----Edward Rogers, a former Reagan Administration White House political aide, and Andrew Card Jr., a New England campaign operative.

Washington Patriarch

Then there is James A. Baker III, 58, Bush’s closest political friend, a coolish Texas cum Washington patriarch, who will be secretary of state. Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, 58, is the gentlemanly friend from Wall Street. And there is Lee Atwater, 37, the engaging and ruthless campaign manager, who will run the Republican National Committee.

To make sense of such diverse appointments--and perhaps to understand a little of Bush’s management style--one friend of many years suggested viewing each of his subordinates as a slice of the President-elect’s own personality.

Conclusion: “Activist President,” declares transition Press Secretary Sheila Tate.

More than just appointments, Americans are hungry to learn all they can about their new First Family in waiting.

Why did Bush wear a rose-colored shirt and sunglasses at a press conference in Florida? Because he was on the beach, and that is what he wears on the beach, said one aide.

What about moving? Barbara Bush told reporters that when she and her husband move from the Naval Observatory along Washington’s Embassy Row to Pennsylvania Avenue in January, it will be their 29th move. One thing that always accompanies them and will again, she said, is their own bed and pillows.

Celebrity Dog

What about First Dog-to-be? Yes, Millie, the 3-year-old spaniel, will be bred to the spaniel of a friend over Christmas. First time. And Mrs. Bush will soon be writing a book about life in the Bush household as told from Millie’s point of view. Publication date unknown.

In his new role as incoming chief executive, Bush has avoided a stumble or serious miscue. But he has been in the lights a long time and has not always been cast favorably.

Robert Brustein, former dean of the Yale Drama School and now director of the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., gives the President-elect good notices.

“The reason he looked so silly in those early (campaign) days was (that) he was rehearsing for a role that didn’t come easily for him”--the macho guy, “tough . . . feisty,” said Brustein. Now, he said, Bush has “settled into himself more, that’s why he looks more comfortable. He’s back to being himself. . . . He’s calmed down his rhetoric, seems to be trying to give the impression of a blue-suited, scholarly moderate.”

Farewell to Reporters

He also seems intent on bringing a little spontaneity and playfulness to the capital, as when he bade farewell to campaign reporters with a humorous speech looking back to more difficult days:

“There have been times when I’ve looked across the tarmac and seen you standing there, shivering in your parkas against the wind, and times when I saw you scrambling for a bus about to leave and jumping aboard it as it rolled away, waving the high-five, or the friendly two-fingered ‘V’ salute and occasionally the one-fingered gesture of friendship and respect. I’ve seen you rushing with the cameras and the mikes when I unexpectedly walk one way instead of another and I’ve seen all this and looked at you and thought:

“Tough. Too bad. Who cares? It’s your problem. Get a raise. Get a real job. Get a haircut.”

So far, Bush has appeared more likeable planning his presidency than he was seeking it. Nearly everyone has seen a change in him in the last 12 days, and many believe this is the “real” George Bush, not the relentless attacker of the campaign trail.

‘On the Right Track’

Steven Ambrose, professor of history at the University of New Orleans and biographer of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon, said that Bush “made me want to throw up” for his coarseness as a campaigner. “He’s been on the right track since . . . a conciliatory track, a ‘we’re all in this together’ track,” Ambrose added. “It’s been a good week for Bush. . . . It was the obvious direction for him to go, but at least he’s going in the right direction.”

But even if the reviews are positive at the beginning, almost everyone acknowledges that the first few days for a President-elect are the easiest. These, after all, are the altar days. The honeymoon has not even started.

“He has a tough row to hoe come January. His view of a ‘kinder and gentler’ nation is going to be quite different than the Democrats’,” warned Barbara O’Connor of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Sacramento State University. “There is a full-fledged battle coming, and I don’t think he can avoid that.”

Staff writers James Gerstenzang and David Lauter contributed to this story.