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<text id=89TT1033>
<title>
Apr. 17, 1989: The Presidency
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
Apr. 17, 1989 Alaska
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
NATION, Page 24
The Presidency
The "Just Folks" Presidency
</hdr><body>
<p>By Hugh Sidey
</p>
<qt>
<l>Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,</l>
<l>Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens</l>
<l>These are a few of my favorite things.</l>
<l>When I'm feeling sad,</l>
<l>I simply remember my favorite things</l>
<l>And then I don't feel so bad.</l>
</qt>
<p> -- Rodgers and Hammerstein
</p>
<p> Good writers, those two. Poetic, brief and accurate. George
Bush must have been listening and working up his own version:
</p>
<qt>
<l>Old baseball mitts and spotted plump puppies,</l>
<l>Horseshoes that ring and bright smiling yuppies . . .</l>
<l>These are a few of my favorite things.</l>
<l>When my polls are bad,</l>
<l>I simply remember my favorite things</l>
<l>And then people feel so glad.</l>
</qt>
<p> So far, Bush's presidency has played remarkably like The
Sound of Music. It might not have worked in the cold war, but
that seems to be over. Comes an economic recession, forget it.
But right now, in boom and blossom time on the Potomac, Bush
has astonished the Beltway punditry by achieving resounding job
approval (54% last week in a TIME/CNN poll, down slightly but
still substantial). All the while he has been shrinking his
nightly TV presence by as much as one-third compared with his
predecessor's, and often he is nowhere to be seen on the front
pages of the nation's newspapers.
</p>
<p> How does a President stay up while going down? "This
low-key, no-pressure, no-sweat President has engendered more
response than Ronald Reagan," says political analyst Horace
Busby, once an aide to Lyndon Johnson. "The American people
have much less need for Washington than Washington wants to
believe."
</p>
<p> Busby's response is visceral. A similar finding from Robert
Lichter of the Center for Media and Public Affairs is factual.
He records all the network evening news shows and analyzes them.
Bush's presence is diminishing, that of Cabinet officers and
other Administration spokesmen rising. The White House now is
the focus of Administration news only about half the time,
compared with 72% in the first days. "So far," says Lichter,
"the `just folks' presidency is working. Bush gets less press
but better press. Bush is far more visible to the press than he
is to the public, just the opposite of Reagan, who was far more
visible to the people than to the press."
</p>
<p> With the notable exception of the John Tower fracas, Bush
has muted public controversy. He cut a deal with Congress to
quiet the poisonous contra-aid issue. He tiptoed out of the
Eastern Air Lines strike early and into the Alaskan oil spill
belatedly. Twice in the past few days he has mentioned his
admiration of the leadership style of Dwight Eisenhower, best
known for his ability to reconcile contentious and talented
people. "No room for grudges in this business," Bush told one
meeting of young staff members.
</p>
<p> By one estimate Bush has upped the presidential verbiage on
policy issues fivefold, reducing the quarrelsome White House
press corps to writing about facts and figures rather than
about the isolation of the President -- stories not nearly so
much fun and not nearly so apt to be printed or broadcast. A
side effect has been the virtual absence of the phony leaks,
dope stories about dark doings inside the Oval Office and
mischievous whispers that delight the political predators of
this city. Nor, one Bush aide ventures, is there any hint of
undercover national security adventures being hatched in dim
corridors. "A few secret messages, maybe some surveillance
activities, but no clue of any Bay of Pigs or missiles for
hostages," he says.
</p>
<p> But a real Baltimore oriole perched outside the President's
office and created a stir last week. It was a rare sighting. The
number of requests for one of Millie's six puppies is in the
dozens and climbing, the kind of happy predicament the Bushes
relish. And before the world turns grumpy, as it surely will,
the President can chuckle along with his favorite philosopher,
Yogi Berra. The story goes that when asked if he was a
fatalist, Berra replied, "I never collected postage stamps."
</p>
</body></article>
</text>