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- NATION, Page 23The PresidencyHitting the Right ChordsBy Hugh Sidey
-
-
- Roger Ailes, the impresario of George Bush's triumphant run for
- the presidency, appeared on television the other day. There arrived
- shortly a note from the White House: "You were not bad, but your
- eye contact wasn't great. George."
-
- The pupil has become the teacher, the tentative has become the
- confident. Or to use another Ailes line, "George Bush has realized
- he does not have to audition anymore; he's got the job."
-
- There are many people around Washington these days who say Bush
- actually looks different. One of his principal aides claims that
- three or four times recently, when discussing highly charged issues
- like the upheavals in China, Bush has cooled his own emotions with
- the line "I'm the President now." There is little question that
- this realization can change a man's manner and mien.
-
- Some national polls reflect a dramatic jump in approval. Gallup
- has Bush at 70%, up 14 points since May, 10 points higher than
- Ronald Reagan when he approached the six-month mark. A TIME/CNN
- poll taken last Wednesday shows Bush cruising along at 63% approval
- at a point when the presidential honeymoon usually comes to an end
- and a slide begins. Pundits have called this a "second honeymoon"
- and "Teflon II." Neither seems quite right since we now know that
- Bush takes showers with his dog -- hardly the stuff of romance.
-
- The President has won praise from such diverse people as Al
- Haig, a presidential contender who last year could not contain his
- contempt for Bush, and Cy Vance and Ed Muskie, both Secretaries of
- State for Jimmy Carter. "Our differences are minimal," confesses
- James Schlesinger, the clear-eyed Cabinet officer fired for candor
- by both Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter.
-
- Even if it's too early to tell how his proposals will work,
- Bush's restraint and reason in arriving at most decisions seem to
- count for a lot. It could also be that Bush's very commonness is
- his virtuosity -- common decency, common courtesy, common interests
- and common sense. Before he sat down last week to talk nukes with
- Australia's Prime Minister Bob Hawke, the President hacked around
- the scruffy Andrews Air Force Base golf course in suffocating heat.
- True, he had enjoyed roast saddle of veal Perigourdine at the state
- dinner, but by Wednesday he was off in Baltimore, downing a hot
- dog, some Maryland crab cakes and vanilla ice cream with his
- grandson, George P., 10, while the Orioles squeezed by the Toronto
- Blue Jays, 2-1.
-
- Bush has touched every stratum of leadership in American
- society. Former Urban League president Vernon Jordan and IBM's
- chairman John Akers huddled with him. Country singer Crystal Gale
- and Alabama fishing guide Ray Scott were houseguests; Scott was
- sighted next morning in fatigues, appraising the South Lawn's
- fountains and pool. Previous Presidents have had profiles jagged
- with talents and flaws. Bush seems not to have those striking peaks
- and valleys.
-
- When Roger Ailes was asked to help get Bush elected, he applied
- his paramount rule for taking a job: "The candidate can't be nuts."
- Ailes figured then and figures today that he found a man cast in
- the concrete of sanity.