The Presidency: Hitting the Right Chords

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.