Jokes Remain, but Bush Shows Signs of War's Burden

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 — He may be a wartime president, but President Bush was hardly solemn during a meeting at the White House with a handful of lawmakers last month, days after he threw out the first pitch of a World Series game at Yankee Stadium.

"He said, `I didn't know then that New Yorkers could wave with all of their fingers!' " recalled Representative Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican who is close to Mr. Bush.

"This is serious business," Mr. Blunt said of the burdens on the president, "but he has definitely not lost his sense of humor."

While he still cannot resist a joke or two (even ribald ones), dozens of friends and advisers who have spent time with Mr. Bush said in interviews that since Sept. 11 he has conducted himself far more seriously than he had before.

Friends say that while Mr. Bush usually appears upbeat — and is trying to convey a sense of normality — the terrorist attacks have weighed on the 55-year-old president far more than the lowest moments of the grueling presidential campaign.

"It's aged the hell out of him," said Gov. William J. Janklow of South Dakota, a Republican who for years has been close to Mr. Bush and his parents. "Look at his hair. Look at the lines on his face. It's incredible, the toll. He's the only guy in history who had to take lessons to get that smirk off his face. He's a jokester. But right now he's probably consciously trying to avoid that stuff. He sees the mortality of himself and others. The fact that he lives in a building where an airplane may have been heading to blow him up — that would weigh on you enormously."

Describing the demands on Mr. Bush as unimaginable, Mr. Janklow said: "Good grief. He goes to bed at night not knowing when the next suicide idiot is going to blow himself up in the Middle East, in New York City or Timbuktu, Ind."

Given the solemnity of the times, several of Mr. Bush's friends say, he has restrained his natural jocularity but also sought a balance so as not to set too gloomy a tone.

"It's a little more somber when you're dealing with life-and-death issues instead of the patients' bill of rights," said Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's chief political adviser. "I don't think the genuine warmth and charisma are gone. But being a wartime president means you're dealing with war. There's a clear command presence. When those admirals and generals leave the Oval Office, you can see they've been with the commander in chief."

Events have left Mr. Bush little choice but to rise to the challenge, but many loyalists say they are nevertheless struck by how much more comfortable and engaged he seems than three months ago.

In a White House that prided itself on punctuality and brevity in meetings and memos, aides say Mr. Bush has become even more businesslike and less patient with long-winded advisers. Meetings that in more tranquil times ran 45 minutes now often take about 20. But people who have met with Mr. Bush say he speaks intensely about his religious beliefs and what he views as his mission to guide the country through war.

While Mr. Janklow said Mr. Bush "will acknowledge the pressures" when asked privately, most of his friends say he conceals any stress he may have.

"Quite frankly, he's very low maintenance," said Marc Racicot, the former Montana governor whom Mr. Bush this week named as chairman of the Republican National Committee. "I've never seen him agitated or anxious. His heart is heavy for the pain, there's no question about that, but everyone's is."

Mr. Racicot said that when he and his wife, Theresa, had dinner with the Bushes a few weeks ago in the White House, Mr. Bush acknowledged that he was "moved by the extraordinary heroism" displayed on and since Sept. 11. But he said the president comfortably went on to chat about his twin daughters.

"He knows my children; I know his," Mr. Racicot said. "We just talked about the impossibility of raising young children. He has two daughters and I have three, and we were just commiserating about the challenge of 50-year-old fathers with 20-year-old daughters."

Some of Mr. Bush's friends say his strength lies in what he was often ridiculed for during the campaign: seeing the big picture and not delving into details.

"My personal view is that complexity in a leader is not a helpful thing," Representative Blunt said, "and certainly not a helpful thing in a crisis."

Mr. Bush's advisers insisted that he was quite engaged in the day-to- day war operations. But they conceded that he was not by nature as hands-on as presidents like Jimmy Carter, who during the Iranian hostage crisis was involved with such details as the number of helicopters needed for a rescue mission.

Former Senator Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, a confidant of former President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, said the current President Bush had displayed a fortitude that comes from having overcome his drinking more than a decade ago.

"Once you've licked one of those things, there are no phantoms out there — and you're ahead of the game emotionally," Mr. Simpson said.

White House officials and Mr. Bush's friends are extraordinarily sensitive to observations that the president has grown into the job. They argue that people never gave him enough credit during the campaign.

"All the doubters and cynics will say he's changed," said Gov. John G. Rowland of Connecticut, chairman of the Republican Governors Association. "He's not changed. I'll argue that till death. What you see is what you get. "

"If you look at pre-Sept. 11, he was getting his sea legs, he was dealing with a change in the Senate majority," said Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, a former senator. "He was realizing that it is a rough-and-tumble world of politics in D.C. He was experiencing for the first time that it is a contact sport. But the pressures of the terrorist attacks have really enhanced the maturing. All the potential was there; it's now harnessed into reality."

Recalling that Mr. Bush was a cutup at governors' meetings not so long ago, Mr. Kempthorne said the transformation had been striking. "At the National Governors Association meeting, he'd be one of us sitting at the table and there'd be a twinkle in his eye," he said. "You knew there was something he was thinking that would be humorous, always lighthearted. There's still going to be a joke, but it's followed by the harsh reality of what he's dealing with."

Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado said the president did not display "quite as much of the hail fellow well met." At a recent meeting with some governors, Mr. Owens said, Mr. Bush displayed a new stature. "It wasn't our friend the president who used to be a governor," he said. "It was the president. We all looked at him a little differently that day, given what he was in the middle of."

When Mr. Bush does tease people, the subject often involves one of his passions, baseball. Just before Thanksgiving, on a trip to Fort Campbell, Ky., to buck up the 101st Airborne Division, Mr. Bush bounded out of his cabin on Air Force One to greet his guests, including Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, a former major-league pitcher who is in the Hall of Fame. "The president appears in the cabin, very confidently, and there's Jim Bunning and the president says he threw a fastball at the World Series that Bunning would be jealous of," Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee recalled.

Despite the view — not universally shared by his friends — that Mr. Bush has aged visibly, he has been working out even more rigorously since Sept. 11.

"The fact that he's running a seven-minute mile now attests to the discipline he's bringing to his whole life right now," said Mark McKinnon, Mr. Bush's chief media consultant during the 2000 campaign. "He has more snap, more energy, more focus." (Before Sept. 11, Mr. McKinnon said, Mr. Bush was 27 to 30 seconds slower.)

Mr. Bush is a better listener at meetings than he was before Sept. 11, aides say. Yet they also say he asks more questions, and sooner, in an effort to shorten meetings.

After a recent meeting of the National Economic Council, the aide said he complimented Mr. Bush for prodding the participants into ending it 10 minutes early — without their seeming to realize what he had done.

Some of Mr. Bush's oldest friends say they regret that they have not heard from the president since Sept. 11. But, they insist, they understand.

"He doesn't write; he doesn't call," said a tongue-in-cheek H. Grant Thomas, who has known Mr. Bush since junior high school. "But somebody described him as the least neurotic person on the planet, and I think that's true. In terms of the big picture he has a sense of buoyancy, of calm, of focus, which comes in handy in a situation like this where it can be very easy to get confused and scared."

I am very suspicious of a communist rag like the New York Times. Why are they publishing this? Build the President up to tear him down later? This sort of thing really worries me.

this is about the sorriest example of me tooism and look at the comments...This rag of a fishwrap still has its rewrite history soundbites,with allusions to maturation,jocular comments and Jimmy Carter. If for one second this liberal socialist paper and writer could find even a slight tinge in the armor that is W,that is what would be in this stories place this very second. After all ,a paper,just like a whore,has to get by doesn't she ?

I saw the President today and his hair is indeed turning markedly grayer. And the lines in his forhead have deepened. But it is clear that his inner joy and peace have grown, not flown. I know Laura's inner strength, beauty, and calm have helped him so much. For such a time as this - President George W. Bush was born. May God continue to give him the strength and protection he needs. No man could bear this burden alone. Thank God that He has given America this President his wife, his parents, his children, and many millions who love him and are praying for him and for all our leaders at this time. Together we will not fail, nor falter, Mr. President. We will not let you. And you will not let us.

Berke is a twit, but if he can manage to write a mostly favorable article about President Bush, I'll take it. One of the reasons Lincoln was a more effective President than Jefferson Davis was that he had an excellent sense of humor whereas Davis was thin-skinned.

Gore nearly succeeded in stealing the election by throwing out military votes; he started his campaign in January 2000, during a debate with Bill Bradley, asserting that he would require the Joint Chiefs to agree that gays could serve openly in the military. He had to back down a bit on that issue but he clearly saw military effectiveness as less important than social engineering or pandering to political interest groups. We were luckier than we could realize at the time when Gore conceded a year ago.

Thanks for the ping......As I recall, it was his Mother who suggested that perhaps he was 'called' to be president. And I believe it occured after hearing Billy Graham preach.

He definitely views his Presidency as his 'Charge to Keep'. Thank God our prayers were answered and GWB is our leader in these difficult & dangerous times.

My respect for George W. Bush grows daily.

Impossible. Your respect is already as high as it can be without putting him above God.

/joke

I think it was the minister of their local church who had a sermon about service to the country. And Barbara said, "He's talking to you, George," or something like that.

Anyone got my exact details?

"He said, `I didn't know then that New Yorkers could wave with all of their fingers!' " recalled Representative Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican who is close to Mr. Bush.

LOL!! that's very funny!

I believe you are correct now that my memory has been jiggled. It was after hearing a local Texas preacher.

Was the talk by Billy Graham the one that inspired GWB to become a committed Christian?

If for one second this liberal socialist paper and writer could find even a slight tinge in the armor that is W,that is what would be in this stories place this very second.

I agree completely. Notice this paper reminds us of a drinking problem that GW had. I think they're just laying the ground work for future attacks.

Thank God -- a president who doesn't micro-manage. What a concept!

I'm grateful to God that GWB has a wonderful wife and two wonderful parents to support him through all of this.

And the fact that his father used to be president, vice-president, head of the CIA, and an ambassador means that he can go to his father and his father truly understands what his son is going through.

Was the talk by Billy Graham the one that inspired GWB to become a committed Christian?

It was a personal conversation between Billy Graham and George W. that clarified the Gospel for him and led to him committing himself more whole-heartedly to Christ.

-penny

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